Ireland's European Parliament elections closed early today, with all 14 seats filled after a marathon five-day count - the longest in the 27-nation bloc.
The ruling centre-right parties Fine Gael, led by Prime Minister Simon Harris, and Fianna Fail, led by Deputy Prime Minister Michelle Martin, won four seats each, AFP reported.
The largest opposition party, left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein, won two seats, Labor one, and independent candidates won the remaining three seats.
Although Ireland was among the first countries to vote on June 6, it finished counting last.
Local elections held on the same date delayed the counting of votes in Europe as the ballot papers first had to be sorted into different piles.
Unlike most EU countries, Ireland had dozens of candidates running in several constituencies, and voting and counting was done manually, not electronically.
The main reason for the protracted count was the complex electoral system - PR-STV or proportional representation with one transferable vote - used in Irish elections.
This system distributes the second, third, and subsequent preference votes of candidates who have been elected or eliminated among their rival candidates, resulting in a continuous series of counts over several days until all seats are filled.
"This is the ultimate demonstration of how the democratic process works. I love it. I hope it never changes," said Luke "Ming" Flanagan, an independent candidate who won one seat.
Candidates waited nervously for days at the counting centres, watching as election officials transferred excess votes from disqualified candidates.
"PR-STV is essentially Ireland's favourite high-adrenaline sport in slow motion," says one commenter on social network X.
The system is "the ultimate electoral intrigue combined with the drama of the Eurovision countdown," noted another, referring to the annual song contest of mostly European countries.
An unusual delay occurred on the first counting day last June 9 and could only happen in Ireland.
Counting local elections in west County Clare was interrupted for hours so people could watch the Munster hockey final - one of the most important events in the Irish sporting calendar. | BGNES
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