Updated 4.35am
GREEN PARTY LEADER Eamon Ryan has requested a recount in the Dublin constituency with just 1,149 votes separating him and Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes after a dramatic late night and early morning count in the three-seater.
Third-placed Hayes is just 193 votes behind independent Nessa Childers who is in second place in the battle for the two remaining European seats in the capital.
Childers and Hayes were both deemed elected after the seventh count in the RDS this morning, but were not declared elected as Ryan decided to request a recount.
Earlier Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan was elected on the third count having emerged as the inevitable winner in Dublin from early on Sunday evening.
With neither Hayes nor Childers declared elected they now face an anxious wait to see if Ryan’s recount request is granted and the outcome of it.
https://vine.co/v/MwxgMtiQxee
Ryan is due to meet the Dublin City returning officer James Barry at 1.30pm today and confirm whether or not he intends to pursue his recount request.
In the likely event that he does, the return officer will then announce his decision at 2pm today (Monday).
On a dramatic late night and early morning in the RDS, Boylan secured the first seat just before midnight following the third count.
But the drama lasted until after 4am when the sixth count saw neither Hayes, Childers nor Ryan reach the quota meaning the surplus of Boylan was distributed.
This appeared enough to put Childers into second place and Hayes into third, but Ryan said, given the late hour, he wanted to make sure no mistakes have been made. (Watch his reaction in the video above)
Boylan reacts to her election to the European Parliament:
Earlier…
The fifth count, announced just before 2.30am, saw Fianna Fáil’s Mary Fitzpatrick eliminated and Childers, an independent MEP, take a huge transfer from the previously eliminated Socialist Paul Murphy.
As a result Childers over took Ryan and moved into third place – 152 votes ahead of the Green – leaving her battling it out with Hayes and Ryan for the final two seats going into the sixth and final count:
By the time the fourth count was announced just after 1am on Monday morning, Fis Nua’s Damon Matthew Wise, independent Jim Tallon, Direct Democracy’s Ray Whitehead and Thomas Darcy, People Before Profit’s Brid Smith, Labour MEP Emer Costello and Socialist MEP Paul Murphy had all been eliminated.
Mary Fitzpatrick said it was “obviously disappointing” and admitted the election came down to transfers:
Much earlier…
Arriving at the RDS earlier in the evening, Brian Hayes expressed confidence that Fine Gael could hold the seat in Dublin that it has held since 1979:
With her election an inevitability, the Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald hailed Boylan as “the real thing”.
McDonald was speaking as she and Boylan made a triumphant arrival at the count centre in the RDS. She said: “Lynn was a new candidate, a young candidate, woman, she’s energetic, she’s committed, she’s real.”
Boylan’s success, her first electoral victory at the third attempt, is testament to her youth and the fact she is a woman, McDonald said.
“You can run young candidates, women and people will respond, and they know the real thing when they see it and Lynn Boylan is the real thing and we are immensely proud of her,” McDonald said.
https://vine.co/v/MwFirMI3aD1
Boylan hailed “a fantastic weekend for the party” and said that her vote was a result of people’s anger.
She said: “We knew that because we’ve been out campaigning for months and talking to people on the doors. There’s a real anger out there. I hope Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore are listening and that they reflect on that because that anger is palpable and it’s reflected in the votes.”
https://vine.co/v/MwFv2bJB372
Arriving at the RDS a short time later, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, said he hoped for a quick result tonight and believes he is in with a chance.
“I hope it happens fairly quickly, I think it would nice for all of us to get over the anxiety, but I think I’ve a chance,” he said. “Mainly my sense is one of gratitude and honour in terms of… we got a good vote, we had a good day on Friday. ”
He also hailed the potential success of Grace O’Sullivan, who has an outside chance of winning a seat for the Greens in Ireland South, saying: “I’d love that.”
“Even if she doesn’t win it doesn’t matter. In my mind she’s won because she’s done something really good for our party and I think for environmental politics in this country,” he added.
The first results from counts in Ireland South and Midlands North West are now not expected until tomorrow.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say