| Election Name: | 2019 Sligo County Council election |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Map Size: | 300px |
| Type: | Parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2014 Sligo County Council election |
| Previous Year: | 2014 |
| Next Election: | 2024 Sligo County Council election |
| Next Year: | 2024 |
| Seats For Election: | All 18 seats on Sligo County Council |
| Majority Seats: | 10 |
| Election Date: | 24 May 2019 |
| Party1: | Fine Gael |
| Seats1: | 6 |
| Seat Change1: | 3 |
| Party2: | Fianna Fáil |
| Seats2: | 5 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Party3: | Sinn Féin |
| Seats3: | 2 |
| Party4: | People Before Profit |
| Seats4: | 1 |
| Party5: | Independents 4 Change |
| Seats5: | 1 |
| Seat Change5: | 1 |
| Party6: | Independent politician |
| Seats6: | 3 |
An election to all 18 seats on Sligo County Council was held on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. County Sligo was divided into 3 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).
At the 2014 Sligo County Council election, County Sligo was divided into two local electoral areas, both of which breached upper limit of 7 seats in the terms of reference of the 2018 LEA boundary review. Following its recommendations, the boundaries were redrawn to create three LEAs.[1] [2]
A total of 35 candidates contested the county's 18 seats,[3] of whom fifteen were outgoing councillors. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael each had nine candidates. Sinn Féin had three, Solidarity/People Before Profit had two, while and one each for the Labour Party, Green Party and Renua. The nine independent candidates included Declan Bree, who was County Sligo's longest serving councillor. Thirteen of the fifteen candidates who were outgoing councillors were re-elected, including Bree who was first elected in 1974 to both the County Council and Sligo Borough Council.
Several seats were decided by very narrow margins, and result was that Fine Gael gained three seats to become the largest party, with six seats. Fianna Fáil lost three seats, and the other group totals were unchanged.[4] The long-serving Bree was re-elected in the Sligo–Strandhill LEA.
| Party | Seats | ± | ±% | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 3 | 10,171 | 30.30 | 5.40 | ||||
| 5 | 3 | 9,599 | 28.59 | 1.11 | ||||
| 2 | 2,752 | 8.20 | 2.10 | |||||
| 1 | 1,332 | 3.97 | 1.37 | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 1,550 | 4.62 | New | ||||
| 0 | 470 | 1.40 | 2.70 | |||||
| 0 | 315 | 0.94 | New | |||||
| 0 | 175 | 0.52 | 0.52 | |||||
| 0 | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||
| 3 | 7,187 | 21.41 | 0.99 | |||||
| Total | align=right | 18 | align=right | 33,571 | 100.00 |
The Fine Gael director of elections made a formal complaint about the large increase in the number of postal votes cast — 252 compared to 131 in the same district in the 2014 election and 20 and 17 in the other two districts in 2019.[5] The ensuing Garda investigation into potential electoral fraud was still ongoing in February 2022.[6]