BREAKING: Cowen elected as counting continues in Midlands North West

Barry Cowen is the second MEP to be elected in the Midlands North West constituency tonight after a huge transfer from Fianna Fáil colleague Lisa Chambers saw him breeze past the quota.

Of Chambers’ 62,880 votes, Cowen received 26,528, bringing him to 115,977 votes and past the quota of 113,325. Therefore, he was deemed elected.

There was also a strong Mayo transfer; Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh received 10,439 votes, bringing her to 100,454. She, along with party colleague Nina Carberry, will be elected. Carberry received 7,276 of Chambers’ votes, bringing her up to 98,118 votes.

It looks unlikely there will be much of a battle for the final seat as Independent Ireland’s Ciaran Mullooly leads Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew by just over 5,000 votes.

The 21st count will see the distribution of Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s surplus of 5,429 votes.