Galway East: 5th Count: Keaveney eliminated

It’s nearly all over in the Galway East Constituency with just one count remaining . . . it is one of the earliest counts to be completed in the constituency in living memory.

The fifth count was the elimination of Senator Lorraine Higgins of Labour which has left Sean Canney just over three hundred votes short of the quota.

She transferred heavily to Deputy Ciaran Cannon with just over 1,700 votes. Paul Connaughton of Fine Gael received just over 1,000 transfers as he conceded defeat to his party colleague.

The count has resulted in Fianna Fail’s Colm Keaveney being eliminated and his transfers are expected to put party colleague Anne Rabbitte and independent Sean Canney over the line.

Keaveney hit out at the boundary changes with put 20,000 votes from Galway east into the new Roscommon Galway constituency. He said that he was not going to make any decision on his political future at the moment.

It is now a packed count centre as the supporters of Canney, Cannon and Rabbitte are waiting for the final result to be announced.

FIFTH COUNT

Distribution of Lorraine Higgins votes

Canney Sean IND +773 10969

Cannon Ciaran FG +1707 9519

Rabbitte Anne FF +825 8791

Connaughton Paul FG +1054 7866

Keaveney Colm FF +573 6700

Keaveney eliminated