European Elections count underway in Castlebar as early signs point to familiar faces winning

There is no estimated time yet for the announcement of the first count for the Midlands-North-West elections, which featured a record 27 candidates.

As the local elections come to a close across the country, now turn to Cork, Dublin and Castlebar for the results of the European Parliament elections.

For the most part, local elections stuck with the status quo, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil dividing up the lion's share of councillor seats nationwide. Independents also saw a huge boost, and Sinn Féin made disappointing gains.

The question on many minds in the count centre in Castlebar is: will the European elections be any different?

At the time of writing, indications from the Midlands-North-West count centre have pointed to no conclusive result before Monday evening at the very earliest. It may be days before voters across the region hear the full results.

An estimated 700,000 ballot papers need to be checked and counted in the TF Hotel in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. Dozens of count staff will remain hard at work for possibly days, as the count is predicted to take much longer than the Dublin constituency, given the area's size.

Ballot boxes only recently finished arriving in Castlebar, and the turnout appears to have been almost 50 per cent.

In rather predictable fashion thus far, Independent candidate Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and Fine Gael's Maria Walsh, both incumbents, have both seen strong support in the ballots. Polling before the election had indicated that both MEPs were at little risk of losing their seats.

Other candidates performing well so far include Aontú's Peadar Tóibín, Fianna Fáil's Barry Cowen, and Fine Gael's Nina Carberry.

An estimated 700,000 people turned out to vote across the region, but it remains to be seen if voters leaned the same way in the European elections as they did in the locals, where independents picked up over 20 per cent of first preference votes, and a record amount of local council seats.

As of yet, independent candidates such as Peter Casey, Michelle Smith and Stephen Garland are polling with low figures, but it is still early days.

It will be hard to predict the outcome here in Castlebar this week, as the large electoral area made it difficult to gauge voter's opinions. The Midlands-North-West region stretches from Donegal to Offaly and Mayo to Louth, meaning a diverse group will be represented by the five MEPs chosen.

Sinn Féin are at risk of losing their one seat in the Midlands-North-West region if Chris MacManus fails to get elected. This would add another loss to the party in the elections, who have performed poorly across local and European counts.

Elsewhere, the Fianna Fáil campaign has been marred by infighting, as border-region hopeful Niall Blaney accused the party leadership of throwing him and Mayo representative Lisa Chambers “overboard” in favour of Barry Cowen, who brings strong name recognition to the table.

These candidates will compete among the 27 total runners and riders in the contest, including unsuccessful presidential election candidate and entrepreneur Peter Casey, and former RTÉ correspondent Ciaran Mullooly.