2019 Donegal County Council election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 37 seats on Donegal County Council 19 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 54.4%  3.7%[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Results by Local Electoral Area | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An election to all 37 seats on Donegal County Council took place on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. County Donegal was divided into 7 local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).
Following a recommendation of the 2018 Boundary Committee, the boundaries of the LEAs were altered from which had been used at the 2014 elections.[2][3] Its terms of reference required no change in the total number of councillors but set a lower maximum LEA size of seven councillors, whereas Donegal in 2015 had LEAs of 10 and 9 seats. Other changes were necessitated by population shifts revealed by the 2016 census.
Overview
Fianna Fáil gained an additional seat to reach 12 and also saw a slight increase in their vote share. Anthony Molloy – who captained the Donegal GAA team to the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship – won a seat for the party, as did rally driver Manus Kelly (both for the first time). However, Seamus O Domhnaill – Fianna Fáil's outgoing Cathaoirleach – was a notable casualty, as was former Senator Enda Bonner.
Unlike other performances around the State, Sinn Féin actually gained a seat in Donegal; increasing their numbers by 1 to 10 seats while seeing a slight reduction in vote share. Fine Gael retained 6 seats overall, while Independents saw a reduction of 2 seats. One Independent elected was John O'Donnell, who attracted controversy following an RTÉ Investigates programme into Irish councillors.
Results by party
| Party | Seats | ± | 1st pref | FPv% | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fianna Fáil | 12 |  1 |
21,142 | 29.35 | 0.25 | |
| Sinn Féin | 10 | 1 |
13,953 | 19.37 | 0.23 | |
| Fine Gael | 6 |  |
13,327 | 18.50 | 2.80 | |
| Labour | 1 | |
1,927 | 2.68 | 1.12 | |
| Aontú | 0 | |
2,265 | 3.14 | New | |
| People Before Profit | 0 | |
284 | 0.39 | 1.02 | |
| Renua | 0 | |
279 | 0.39 | New | |
| Independent | 8 | 2 |
18,857 | 26.18 | 3.22 | |
| Total | 37 | |
72,034 | 100.00 | | |