Doherty looks set to top the poll in Donegal

 

Pearse Doherty looks set to top the poll in the Donegal constituency in next month’s general election, according to a new opinion poll.
The Sinn Féin TD is likely to receive  27% first-preference votes according to a new TG4/Ipsos MRBI poll.
It’s predicted that Doherty’s expected surplus could help his colleague Pádraig Mac Lochlainn regain the seat he lost in the last election.
Fine Gael’s Joe McHugh is the second most popular candidate among those polled, with 17% of first-preference votes.
According to the poll, the last seat could come down to a battle of transfers between one of the Fianna Fáil candidates and current Independent TD Thomas Pringle.
Green Party candidate Michael White and Independent candidate John O’Donnell both polled at 4% while Independent candidate Peter Casey polled at 2%.
Independent Arthur McGuinness was not included in the poll as he only filed his nomination papers on Monday.
The opinion poll was carried out on Monday and Tuesday of this week with 550 people surveyed.
There’s a margin of error of up to plus or minus four percentage points.
This is the first of TG4/Ipsos MRBI constituency poll for the general election with more expected to be released in the coming weeks.