EARLY tallies in the historic Limerick mayoral election had Independent candidate John Moran at 25 per cent of the vote and looking very hard to beat.
However, with the former General Secretary at the Department of Finance having been reined back to 22 per cent as the afternoon drew in, the gap between the runners and riders at the Limerick Racecourse count centre had narrowed.
Independent runner Helen O’Donnell was holding steady in second place on 17 per cent, while big mover, as tallies raced on, was Fianna Fáil’s Dee Ryan, who was gaining on the other two frontrunners on 15 per cent.
A seasoned Fine Gael party hack suggested Ms O’Donnell, who is a former parliamentary party chairperson of Fine Gael and her late husband Tom O’Donnell was a TD and MEP for the party, would hope to pick up transfers from Daniel Butler, a former mayor of Limerick himself, who is still in the field himself on 12 per cent, according to the tally.
The official votes will be counted on Monday morning, so until then, nothing is certain.
“I would hope to get transfers, but it’s too early to say, but it will definitely go down to transfers,” Ms O’Donnell said.
“I know John Moran is polling well, but I’m not doing too badly either, and it will go down to the wire. I’m delighted with what my tally people are telling me because I have never done this before.
Sitting Limerick TDs Maurice Quinlivan (SF) and Brian Leddin (GP) have done this before, and neither appeared to be pushing forward into the parade ring, although Quinlivan was still visible in the chasing pack at 11 per cent.
On 3 per cent of the votes tallied, Deputy Leddin, however, will be disappointed that his vision of a liveable city with new transport links had failed to garner more traction with the electorate.
Leddin was in a group of candidates bringing up the rear, including sitting councillors Frankie Daly (IND, 6 per cent), Conor Sheehan (LAB 3 per cent), and Elisa O’Donovan (SocDems 3 per cent).
Some suggest that with a lot of non-transferable votes, whichever candidate is elected to the historic first mayoral role would likely do it without reaching the quota.
With something of a grain of rice between the top three of Moran, O’Donnell, and Ryan, all eyes will be on the vote of FG candidate and former Limerick mayor Daniel Butler, who the tally people had on 12 per cent.
Fine Gael kept their silkes for Mr Butler and did not support Helen O’Donnell as their candidate, despite her being a former chairperson of the parliamentary party and her late husband, Tom O’Donnell, securing both a Dáil seat and European Parliament seat for Fine Gael previously.
However, sources across the government parties said they expected O’Donnell to be transfer friendly.
It may not be enough though to pull Moran and perhaps Ryan back from the finishing post.
Speaking at the count centre, Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan, who during his campaign told Limerick city and county he would be a “champion” for them, said he was “happy” with his standing in the race.
“It’s too early to call it,” Mr Quinlivan said.
