Big parties seek to solve Mayo county town vote drain dilemma
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil strategists in Mayo's county town are seeking to solve a pre-general election puzzle, The Connaught Telegraph can reveal.
The shared objective is to stop first preference votes for their respective parties from draining out of Castlebar at an alarming rate.
Over 9,200 votes were cast in favour of candidates residing outside the Castlebar electoral area in the 2020 general election.
That compared to a total of 5,787 for the two candidates based in the town, namely Alan Dillon, FG (3,145) and Lisa Chambers FF (2,642), the latter of whom lost her seat in Dáil Éireann as a result of unprecedented voting patterns despite strong hopes of being appointed a government minister.
The biggest beneficiaries of this support drain away from the urban, main party candidates were Rose Conway-Walsh, SF (3,093) and Michael Ring, FG (2,927), both of whom were elected on the first count after exceeding the quota of 12,871 with first preference returns of 14,633 and 14,796, respectively.
The statistics have been a source of frustration and bewilderment for officials of the two main parties ever since - and particularly so within Fianna Fáil, which was left reeling by the loss of a Leinster House seat.
Moving the clock forward by four years and nine months, the same two Castlebar candidates are in the field, albeit approach the 2024 general election on November 29 from completely different positions.
Having been a newcomer in the general election of February 7, 2020, Alan Dillon has since been elevated to the position of Minister of State while Chambers, having served as leader of An Seanad since the loss of her TD status, is facing a make-or-break political scenario.
That’s why the Fianna Fáil organisation is under so much pressure to ensure members of the electorate in the Castlebar town and district keep their votes local on this occasion.
And while Fine Gael may not be experiencing the same level of anxiety, the party in the county town has not been making a secret of its effort to ensure a ‘Castlebar first’ approach when people are exercising their franchise.
It is one of the fascinating factors of an election that few observers are willing to confidently predict.