THE RESULTS of the first count in the historic Limerick mayoral election are in and Independent candidate John Moran is ahead of the pack by over 5,000 votes.
Colm O’Móráin became the first casualty of the long-awaited count, finding himself knocked out on the first count in the race to become Limerick’s directly-elected mayor.
The announcement came just moments ago at Limerick Racecourse after a long day of waiting for the candidates to find out the distribution of first preference votes.
Independent John Moran leads the race after the first count, receiving 18,308 first preference votes.
Colm Ó’Móráin became the first candidate to be eliminated in the first count, securing 530 first preference votes.
Fellow independent candidate Helen O’Donnell is trailing just behind Mr Moran, with 12,903 first preferences.
Fianna Fáil’s Dee Ryan secured 11,785 first preference ballots, followed by Fine Gael’s Daniel Butler with 10,190 first preference votes.
After a poor weekend for his party, Sinn Féin’s Maurice Quinlivan secured 8,331 votes in the first count.
Independent Frankie Daly secured 4,574 votes, Aontú’s Sarah Beasley got 2,635 votes, Labour’s Conor Sheehan got 2,390 first preferences, while Elisa O’Donovan of the Social Democrats secured 2,384 votes.
The Green Party’s Brian Leddin secured 2,303 votes, Dr Laura Keyes got 1,079, Caitríona Ní Chatháin was given 886 first preference votes, with the Party for Animal Welfare’s Gerben Uunk receiving 758 votes, and People Before Profit’s Ruairí Fahy getting 689 first preferences.
Colm Ó’Móráin’s 530 first preference votes were not enough to keep him in the race, and therefore he has been excluded, with his votes to be distributed elsewhere.
The quota has been set at 39,873, so regardless of leads at the minute, this race is very far from over and ‘transfers’ will be the word on everyone’s lips at the count centre.
Count staff announced a valid poll of 79,745 votes out of a total of 81,668.
The count continues into the evening.
