Poll tests Sinn Fein's popularity

[struggle4progress]

Sinn Fein is due to find out if recent controversies have had any effect on their popularity as votes are counted in a by-election in the Irish Republic. <snip>

Its candidate in the County Meath poll, Joe Reilly, won 9% of the vote in the 2002 general election.

He said he would regard anything above that in Friday's election as a victory. <snip>

Voting for the five-seat constituency took place on Friday, with ballots being counted on Saturday. <snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4342411.stm


Sinn Fein scores at the polls
March 12 2005 at 04:10PM

... With over 82 percent of the ballot boxes opened in County Meath, tally figures showed Sinn Fein candidate Joe Reilly had polled 12.2 percent ...

The country's main opposition Fine Gael party looked to have topped the Meath poll with 34.3 percent of the vote, closely followed by the governing Fianna Fail party of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on 33.1 percent, state broadcaster RTE reported.

In the constituency of Kildare North, which is not being challenged by Sinn Fein, independent candidate Catherine Murphy was in the lead with 25 percent of the vote followed by Fianna Fail with 24.7 percent and Fine Gael on 16.4 percent.

The final results of the by-elections, called after former prime minister John Bruton and former finance minister Charlie McCreevy accepted top European Union jobs, are not expected until late afternoon on Saturday.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=qw1110632941682B264