Irish foe of EU treaty unlikely to win European seat

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Declan Ganley, a leading opponent of the European Union's reform treaty, looks unlikely to win a seat in the European Parliament for Ireland's North West constituency, early returns showed on Sunday.

Ganley is battling for the third seat in the constituency but pollsters and rival politicians said he would not get sufficient transferred votes to clinch it.

"It looks unlikely that Declan Ganley can make up the necessary ground," Jim Higgins, a member of the European Parliament for the centre-right Fine Gael party, told Reuters.

Higgins, Pat "The Cope" Gallagher of the ruling Fianna Fail party and Independent candidate Marian Harkin look set to win the three seats.

Ganley and his spokesman were not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Darren Ennis)