The first tallies are in for the Gort-Kinvara county council district and three seats seem all but guaranteed.
Fine Gael’s Joe Byrne is topping the polls in the Gort-Kinvara area by a significant margin at 2,756 first preference votes, more than 1,000 over the quota.
This could prove a significant boost to his party colleagues as transfer votes come into play during the official counting.
Two more seats look reasonably secure as Fine Gael’s PJ Murphy is polling in second with 1,611 first preference votes, and Fianna Fáil’s Martinan Kinane looks likely to secure a third seat with 1,467 votes.
These are just the unofficial tallies being reported and the full result won’t be known until the final count at the Tennis Club which is underway now.
But they paint a comfortable picture for the establishment parties with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil taking all the top positions.
Emma O’Connell, the Renua candidate is trailing at the bottom of the pack with just over 3% of the vote.
There 11 candidates standing for five county council seats in the Gort-Kinvara area.
The quota for a seat in the district is 1,700 votes
Results from the first tallies are:
- Joe Byrne (Fine Gael) – 2,756
- PJ Murphy (Fine Gael) – 1,611
- Martina Kinane (Fianna Fáil) – 1,467
- Gerry Finnerty (Fianna Fáil) – 815
- Kevin Fahey (Fianna Fáil) – 795
- Fionn Kiely (Fine Gael) – 625
- Geraldine Donohue (Independent) – 555
- Cormac MacGowan (Independent) – 437
- Hubert Geoghegan (Independent – 408
- Declan Diviney (Independent) – 387
- Emma O’Connell (Renua) – 335
