Independent candidate Catherine Connolly is set to receive more than 60% of the Laois vote in the Presidential Election and is on course to be elected as Ireland’s 10th president on the first count.
It is a landslide victory for the Galway woman, an Independent TD since 2016 and a councillor in her native city prior to that since 1999.
Among her supporters in the count centre in Laois was local Independent Republican TD Brian Stanley and Sinn Féin senator Maria McCormack.
Stanley was one of the TDs to support Connolly’s Oireachtas nomination and was her host when she visited Portlaoise during her campaign in early September.
Both Stanley and McCormack are on their way to join the celebrations in Dublin, which is a victory for the left alliance of parties and individuals who came together to back Connolly.
Heather Humphreys’ disappointing campaign for Fine Gael – which has been signalled in the polls for some time – will see her come a distant second with Fianna Fáil’s absent candidate Jim Gavin in third.
Gavin did get a smattering of votes but not anything remotely enough to have an impact on this race.
According to a combined tally done by supporters of the three candidates (which got 108 of the 115 boxes in Laois), Catherine Connolly is on 63.43% of the vote.
Heather Humphreys is on 29.65% and Jim Gavin is on 6.92%. The tallies aren’t 100% accurate – and in this case aren’t 100% complete – but they are a massively reliable indicator.
Turnout in Laois is expected to be confirmed at close to 40%. It was almost 44% in 2018 at the last Presidential Election, making this the lowest ever.
The Laois figures are largely in line with the national picture.
What is notable also is the significant proportion of spoiled votes which could well be about 3,500 in Laois alone, which will be in the region of 13%.
That compares to 231 spoiled votes in last year’s General Election in the Laois constituency and is on the back of a Spoil the Vote campaign which came on the back of the failure of the likes of Maria Steen and Gareth Sheridan to get on the ballot paper.
Attending the count centre in Laois was Elaine Mullally from Portarlington who was part of that campaign and who had previously been a supporter of Maria Steen, a conservative Independent who had received the support of 18 Oireachtas members, two short of what she needed.
Elaine Mullally was a founding member of Independent Ireland but contested last year’s General Election in Laois as an Independent.
Also in attendance in Laois throughout the morning was Fianna Fáil TD Sean Fleming while among the Fine Gael elected representatives in attendance were Cllr John King and Cllr Paddy Buggy.
Cllr Aisling Moran – who had been a supporter of Gareth Sheridan’s attempt to get a nomination – was present as well.
With the boxes opened, votes have been sorted and are now being counted under the guidance of Returning Officer Rory Hanniffy.
When the Laois count is complete at some stage in the afternoon, the result will be sent to the central count centre in Dublin.
The official first count nationally will be announced when all 43 constituencies have returned their counts.
In the unlikely event of Catherine Connolly not exceeding 50% of the vote, the national Returning Officer will then instruct the second count to get underway across the country.
SEE ALSO – Check out some of the LaoisToday coverage of this year’s Presidential Election
