Mary McAleese elected Irish President Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source:emigrant-request@iol.ie Fri Oct 31 18:36:11 1997 The Presidential election was won by the Government candidate, Mary McAleese, very much as predicted by the unofficial tally and recent opinion polls. The final figures are: 1st count 2nd count Mary McAleese 574,424 (45.2%) 706,259 (58.7%) Mary Banotti 372,002 (29.3%) 497,516 (41.3%) Dana Rosemary Scallon 175,458 (13.8%) Eliminated Adi Roche 88,423 (7.0%) Eliminated Derek Nally 59,529 (4.7%) Eliminated - The result was delayed for a few hours due to fog in Galway. This caused major problems for those whose job it was to deliver the three ballot boxes from the Aran Islands to the count centre in Galway. - Just 47.6% of the electorate bothered to vote. This compares with more than 60% in previous presidential elections. - At the end of the first count Mary Banotti led in just four constituencies, all in the greater Dublin area south of the Liffey. - For many the big surprise was the success of Dana whose proposed candidacy was initially regarded as something of a joke by some commentators. She won close to 25% of the vote in the Donegal constituencies and exceeded 10% in all the other constituencies. - The collapse of Adi Roche's vote is considered equally surprising, with no one too sure why it happened. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Publishers of electronic newsletters for the Irish abroad The Irish Emigrant, Phone: (353) 91-569158 Cathedral Building, Fax: (353) 91-569178 Middle Street, email: liam@emigrant.ie Galway, Ireland. WWW: www.emigrant.ie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.31.97-20:33:35-2683