Independents day as major parties lose out

Anti-establishment are now well placed to translate strong national support into major gains at the next general election, while Government parties face losses, says Adrian Kavanagh

THIS weekend’s by-election contests produced two obvious winners – Paul Murphy of the Anti Austerity Alliance and Michael Fitzmaurice, the independent candidate from Luke Ming Flanagan’s grouping.

But a few more winners may emerge from these contests, looking ahead to the next general election contests in the enlarged Dublin South-West and the new Rosommon-Galway and Sligo-Leitrim constituencies – in some cases emerging from the list of other by-election candidates, but in other cases emerging from a group of other contenders who did not contest Friday’s elections.