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It’s been a long day from dawn to dusk and it’s set to continue as the counting has been adjourned for day one after over 13 hours between the two centres, St Mary’s Hall and Kealew Park.
We finish with the tallies showing expected results for each of the Municipal areas; Portlaoise, Portarlington-Graiguecullen and Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick.
Six of the seven seats in the Portlaoise Municipal District are set to be won relatively comfortably – but the main point of interest will be who takes the final seat.
Willie Aird and John Joe Fennelly are neck and neck as to who will top the poll, according to tallies and should be elected on the first count.
In Portarlington/Graiguecullen, it looks to stay more or less with the status quo, apart from one exception.
Padraig Fleming looks set to top the poll for Fianna Fáil and take the first seat in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District.
And it looks almost certain that Tom Mulhall (Fine Gael) and Aidan Mullins (Sinn Féin) will be elected on the first count after polling very strongly too.
Paschal McEvoy (Fianna Fáil) will be just short of the quota while Ben Brennan (Independent) will be comfortable too. Aisling Moran (Fine Gael) currently sits in sixth position according to the Fine Gael tallies ahead of Labour’s Eoin Barry.
Meanwhile in Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick, two new first-time candidates have put the cat among the pigeons and have put themselves in contention to win a seat in the six-seat district.
Conor Bergin for Fine Gael has put in a massive performance and the tallies have him well in with a shout with over 900 first preferences.
Ollie Clooney is also in the mix as an Independent when he was overlooked by Fine Gael. Clooney is showing over 1,100 number ones in the tallies.
Ironically, if either of them do make it to County Hall it could well be at the expense of FG veteran, David Goodwin from Rosenallis.
But a word of warning to those who would write off David Goodwin. He’s been here before and is a seasoned political scrapper.
Time will tell tomorrow.
SEE ALSO – Battle for the last seat in Portlaoise set to go right down to the wire
