1st Count City East: McDonnell elected

Independent councillor Declan McDonnell has been re-elected to Galway City Council on the first count – topping the poll in the City East area.
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With 1,090 first preference votes, Cllr McDonnell is the first councillor to be elected to the next City Council – exceeding the quota by 31 votes.

The second count for Galway City East is now underway, with the distribution of Cllr McDonnell’s surplus as well as the 65 votes of Independent candidate Pat Hardiman who has now been eliminated.

With a quota of 1,059 votes, the closest candidate is Alan Cheevers (FF) with 961 votes, closely followed by sitting councillor Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) with 937 votes.

Independent candidate Pat Hardiman has been eliminated and his 65 votes are now being redistributed along with Cllr McDonnell’s 31 surplus votes.

In the first count, sitting councillor Michael John Crowe (FF) collected 755 votes; Cllr Noel Larkin (Ind) 675; and Cllr Mairéad Farrell (SF) 522.

Cllr John Walsh (FG) looks to be in real danger of losing his seat, getting just 456 first preferences – with his running mate, Donal Lynch’s 216 votes unlikely to give him the transfers required to get over the line.

Elsewhere, Social Democrats’ candidate Owen Hanley is on 413 votes while the Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on 382

Pat Hardiman eliminated.
Distribution of McDonnell surplus (31) and Hardiman’s 65 votes.