General Election: Thomas Pringle all but admits defeat in general election race

Thomas Pringle picked up 2,147 transfers from Noel Jordan on the 14th count of the general election count in Donegal, but it's not expected to be enough to retain his seat.

Due to the fact Nikki Bradley was the one eliminated on the 14th count, Pringle's advantage of 341 over Charlie McConologue will almost certainly not carry him over the line in the 15th. That means that following the election of Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn on day one of the count, they will be joined by Pat the Cope Gallagher, McConologue and Charles Ward of the 100 Percent Redress Party on the 34th Dáil. 

With one of the four to be eliminated and the other three to get seats, the numbers don't add up for Pringle.

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Pringle has admitted that a lot of things impacted on the campaign including Noel Jordan and John McNulty running beside him, which saw his vote drop everywhere in the Donegal electoral area, and the 100% Redress Party becoming more transfer-friendly.

"In reality, I don't think the numbers are there," he said. "The transfers will work for Charlie McConalogue. We had calculated that Noel Jordan would be the last one to go out and that would've suited me better. That's not the way it was. It later became obvious that it would be Nikki Bradley and that's the way that politics works.

"Sinn Fein and Fianna Fáil ran candidates against me and now there will be no TD in the south of the county. The Redress candidate was a hoover for transfers and that was usually me. We did all that we could do and I said at the end, we did all that we could. It was always going to be close."