GALWAY EAST – SIXTH COUNT, KEAVENEY HAS CHANCE OF LABOUR SEAT

Date Published: 26-Feb-2011

BY DECLAN TIERNEY

In a dramatic twist in Galway East, Colm Keaveney has a realistic chance of taking an historic Labour seat.

He is a crucial 732 ahead of Tuam FG candidate Tom McHugh with independent candidate Sean Canney having been eliminated.

Keaveney will be hoping to stay well head of McHugh when Canney’s votes are transferred. McHugh has a huge gap to bridge and the odds are not in his favour of doing this.

Canney is a Tuam candidate and while McHugh will get more transfers than Keaveney, he has a lot of ground to make up and it would be a major achievement if he achieved this.

There are 6,400 Canney transfers to be distributed and no one could dare call it for definite at this point.

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

Distribution of Higgins’ votes

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

SIXTH COUNT

Distribution of McClearn’s votes

Kitt (FG) (+430) 10,248

Cannon (FG) (+1,840) 9,962

Connaughton (FG) (+1,732) 9,831

Broderick (Ind) (+793) 7,648

Keaveney (Lab) (+227) 7,471

McHugh (FG) (+612) 6,739

Canney (Ind) (+89) 6,430

Canney eliminated