GALWAY EAST – FIFTH COUNT, CANNEY BID LOOKS DOOMED

Date Published: 26-Feb-2011

BY DECLAN TIERNEY

The chances of Sean Canney winning an independent seat in Galway East look doomed to failure.

Lorraine Higgins’ transfers have pushed Labour colleague Colm Keaveney to within shouting distance of a seat and he is now involved in a major battled with the other Tuam candidate Tom McHugh of Fine Gael.

At the moment Jimmy McClearn of Fine Gael has been eliminated and even though Canney is more than 200 votes ahead of McHugh, the elimination of McClearn will benefit McHugh greatly and put him ahead of Canney.

Canney will then be eliminated and his transfers will stay in the north of the constituency with Keaveney and McHugh to get the lions share and this could determine the destination of the final seat.

Sean Canney was a pre election favourite but his 5,567 first preferences were about 500 short of what was required to stay in the race.

The result of the sixth count will be known at around 10.15 p.m.

The Galway East count so far reads like this:

Number of seats: 4

Electorate: 83,651

Total poll: 59,836

Total valid poll: 59,319

Quota: 11,864

FIRST COUNT

Paul Connaughton jnr. (FG) 7,264

Ciaran Cannon (FG) 6,924

Micheal Kitt (FF) 6,604

Tom McHugh (FG) 5,833

Sean Canney (Ind) 5,567

Jimmy McClearn (FG) 5,392

Timmy Broderick (Ind) 5,146

Colm Keaveney (Lab) 4,261

Michael F. Dolan (FF) 4,107

Dermot Connolly (SF) 3,641

Lorraine Higgins (Lab) 3,577

Emer O’Donnell (Ind) 601

Ciaran Kennedy (GP) 402

O’Donnell and Kennedy eliminated.

SECOND COUNT

Distribution of O’Donnell’s and Kennedy’s votes

Connaughton (FG) (+55) 7,319

Cannon (FG) (+134) 7,058

Kitt (FG) (+47) 6,651

McHugh (FG) (+37) 5,870

Canney (Ind) (+78) 5,645

McClearn (FG) (+45) 5,437

Broderick (Ind) (+105) 5,251

Keaveney (Lab) (+89) 4,350

Dolan (FF) (+46) 4,153

Higgins (Lab) (+136) 3,813

Connolly (SF) (+88) 3,729

Connolly eliminated

THIRD COUNT

Distribution of Connolly’s votes

Connaughton (FG) (+247) 7,566

Cannon (FG) (+207) 7,265

Kitt (FG) (+229) 6,880

Broderick (Ind) (+1,036) 6,287

McHugh (FG) (+83) 5,953

Canney (Ind) (+295) 5,940

McClearn (FG) (+194) 5,631

Keaveney (Lab) (+350) 4,700

Higgins (Lab) (+609) 4,422

Dolan (FF) (+135) 4,288

Dolan eliminated

FOURTH COUNT

Distribution of Dolan’s votes

Kitt (FG) (+2668) 9,548

Connaughton (FG) (+244) 7,810

Cannon (FG) (+297) 7,562

Broderick (Ind) (+238) 6,525

Canney (Ind) (+187) 6,127

McHugh (FG) (+84) 6,037

McClearn (FG) (+143) 5,774

Keaveney (Lab) (+92) 4,792

Higgins (Lab) (+227) 4,649

Higgins eliminated

FIFTH COUNT

Kitt (FG) (+270) 9,818

Cannon (FG) (+560) 8,122

Connaughton (FG) (+289) 8,099

Keaveney (Lab) (+2,452) 7,244

Broderick (Ind) (+330) 6,855

Canney (Ind) (+214) 6,341

McHugh (FG) (+90) 6,127

McClearn (FG) (+205) 5,979