AFTER the first count at Limerick Racecourse this morning, Sinn Féin candidate Maurice Quinlivan has been excluded from the race.
After a long day of counting on Monday coming to an end around midnight, counting resumed this (Tuesday) morning, with the first count of the day confirming that sitting TD Maurice Quinlivan was excluded from the race, with his 11,571 votes not being enough to keep him in the running.
Speaking to the Limerick Post after the news came, Deputy Quinlivan said that “it was really positive campaign, one of the most positive campaigns I’ve been involved in.
“And I think all the candidates did themselves good in that campaign. So I want to wish whoever’s going to win all the best for the role of the new mayor of Limerick,” Deputy Quinlivan said.
The sitting TD continued, saying that the new DEM role is “a really positive thing for Limerick. If we get this right, they would have my full support going forward if they do things that are positive and good in the best interest of Limerick. But if they don’t do that, I would be the first person to hold them to account.
“But I just want to reemphasise my thanks to every single person, those who campaigned with me, those who helped me, my family, my wife who has been burdened as usual, and all the support I got from my party with, my friends and colleagues,” the Sinn Féin man said.
Speaking on what has been a disappointing election nationwide for the Sinn Féin party, Deputy Quinlivan said that locally, “we went into this campaign with three local councillors. We come out with three local councillors. We lost one and we gained one.
“So we had ambitions to get more. We couldn’t get there, and it’s the nature of politics, it’s swings and roundabouts. We will learn from what went wrong and what went right,” he said.
Independent candidate John Moran is still leading the pack with 20,982 votes, while second-place Helen O’Donnell is on 15,389.
