Overall the two Dohertys took around 4100 of the 9600 Sinn Fein votes in the old Donegal North-East (the Google Earth screenshot below shows Padraig Maclochlainn’s share of the Sinn Fein vote in the old Donegal North East) – by contrast MacLochlainn only took 200 of the 10200 party votes in the old Donegal South-West. A case could be made that Pearse Doherty’s significant national media presence might explain his getting votes in t…he old Donegal North-East, but surely – given his similarly prominent media presence – you would then expect MacLochlainn to be picking up a noticeable tally of votes across the old Donegal South-West.
The problem for Sinn Fein was probably not that they picked a third candidate, but rather that they did not take action to shore up MacLochlainn’s support. If a diktat had been issued for Sinn Fein supporters in Gary Doherty’s Stranorlar area to vote #2 Padraig MacLochlainn (when Doherty was eliminated after the 7th count, 77% of his transfers went to Pearse Doherty and only 12% went to MacLochlainn) it is highly likely – given that Pringle’s margin of victory over MacLochlainn on the 13th count was a mere 164 votes – that Padraig MacLochlainn would have indeed been elected on the final count.
(A quick run through of the final counts suggest that if MacLochlainn had received 45% of Gary Doherty’s transfers (versus 44% for Pearse Doherty), he would have probably beaten Pringle by 150 votes – if he had received 65% (versus 24% for Pearse Doherty), he would probably have won by 350 votes)