Count concludes in early hours

Fingal Independent

By John MANNING

Wednesday June 10 2009

'THE Longest Day' was the name of a famous war film but the tag could equally have been applied to

the count for the newly merged Howth/ Malahide ward which finally ended at 4am on Sunday morning.

The count was the slowest to get out of the blocks.

A combination of the sheer number of votes to be counted and difficulties in reconciling the number of votes at the count centre with the number recorded at polling stations, meant that it was 9.35pm before the first councillor was elected in the ward.

That was Cllr Peter Coyle (Lab), who, once again, blew the opposition out of the water to exceed a massive quota on the first count and top the poll.

The size of the quota meant that the race to fill the next four seats was conducted at a snail-like pace as candidates edged slowly towards the 3,709 votes needed.

Falling a long way short and one of the big stories of the night was the complete wipe-out of Green seats in the ward. The two sitting Green councillors, Cllr Robbie Kelly and Cllr David Healy were both out of the race by the seventh count.

Neither of the candidates were present at the count in a devastating night for the Green Party which lost all of its seats on Fingal County Council. In the end, only one more candidate exceeded the quota, in the shape of new Labour councillor, Cian O'Callaghan who completed an extraordinary performance for Labour in the ward, doubling its representation. On that same count, which finally came at 4am, three other candidates were elected without reaching the quota.

Cllr Eoghan O'Brien filled the next seat with 3,634 votes with the two Fine Gael councillors, Cllr Alan Farrell and Cllr Joan Maher taking the final two spots in the ward. Honourable mention has to go to first-time, independent candidate, Jimmy Guerin, who had some of the sitting councillors sweating and was only eliminated on the final count in an impressive debut.

While Cllr Coyle was probably in his bed at this point, the other four candidates elected at 4am walked out of the count centre into the dawn, tired but happy.

- John MANNING

Wednesday June 10 2009

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