John McDonagh has been eliminated from the running in Galway city central after an exhaustive recount.
The Labour Party candidate was dead level with Martina O’Connor of the Green Party in seventh place in the city central district with both at 768 votes in the ninth count.
The tie was broken with a count of first preference votes where O’Connor beat McDonagh with 544 to his 527.
McDonagh called for a recount of the city central results on Sunday evening as the count became too close to call between hime, Martina O’Connor, Sharon Nolan, and Colette Connolly.
So far Mike Cubbard (Ind) and Ollie Crowe (FF) have been deemed elected as the other candidates have awaited the results of the recount to proceed.
Fine Gael’s Eddie Hoare is out ahead of the remaining pack with 1,109 and is all but certain to secure a seat as he is just 34 votes short of the quota.
Behind him is Frank Fahy (FG) with 931 votes who is currently the contender for the fourth seat in the city central district.
The final two seats are still being closely fought by Colette Connolly (Ind) with 804 votes, Sharon Nolan (SD) with 788, and Martina O’Connor (GP) with 768.
John McDonagh was fighting to hold onto the seat of retiring Labour councillor Billy Cameron who represent the city central ward for 15 years since being elected in 2004.
McDonagh’s votes will now be redistributed with the potential to break the tie in this race.
