Brought to you in association with People First Credit Union
And we’re back. After a long day of sorting the votes yesterday in St Mary’s Hall in Portlaoise, the action moved to Kealew Business Park yesterday evening where the counting started.
But it was adjourned at 10pm last night and counting gets underway again this morning.
The LaoisToday Live Blog, which drew record numbers to our site yesterday, is back and will keep you right up to speed throughout today.
We should have an official first count by about mid-day in the three Municipal Districts.
In Portlaoise, Willie Aird and John Joe Fennelly will be elected on the first count as will Padraig Fleming, Aidan Mullins and Tom Mulhall in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District.
In each case, the second count will be the distribution of Fleming and Aird’s surplus, assuming they top the poll as the tallies suggest.
James Kelly will top the poll in Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick but won’t be elected on the first count, meaning that the bottom candidate – Ger Hogan according to the tallies – will be eliminated and his votes distributed.
It appears that Kelly, Paddy Bracken and John King will all be returned – with sitting councillors Seamus McDonald, Brendan Phelan and David Goodwin all battling with newcomers Ollie Clooney and Conor Bergin for the remaining three seats.
In the Portlaoise area, outgoing councillors Caroline Dwane-Stanley, Noel Tuohy, Mary Sweeney and Catherine Fitzgerald are all on course to be re-elected comfortably.
The last seat will come down between Naeem Iqbal, Thomasina Connell, Dom Dunne, Pauline Madigan and Donal Kelly.
In Graiguecullen-Portarlington, Paschal McEvoy will be just short of the quota and will be elected on the second count with Ben Brennan a short while later.
Aisling Moran is in line for the last seat and should hold off the challenge of Labour’s Eoin Barry.
In any case, stay with us throughout the day and we’ll keep you up to speed with every twist and turn.
SEE ALSO – Carlow coach Poacher infers Laois ‘leaked’ video which led to bans
