Offaly local election candidate guaranteed to win seat with no votes counted

One sitting Offaly county councillor is guaranteed to win back his seat, according to tallies in the local election count centre.

Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick has mopped up votes around his native Cloneyhurke and surrounding areas if the early tallies are to be believed.

The Fianna Fail councillor was projected to have amassed over 1,100 votes based off of 15 boxes tallied from a total of 30 in the Edenderry LEA. The official count won't come through until this evening but Cllr Fitzpatrick will far surpass the quota, projected to be 778 votes.

Meanwhile, Fergus McDonnell is looking good to regain a seat on the council as he is in second place according to the tally of 50% of Edenderry boxes. With over 500 votes from 50% of the boxes, he too looks good for a seat.

It's closer beyond that with Noel Cribbin, Claire Murray (FF), Claire Murrary (SF), Liam Quinn, John McNamee and Robert McDermott all within a couple of hundred votes of one another.

Sitting councillor Mark Hackett looks in danger with just 109 votes from the first 50% of boxes tallied, and he will be hoping for a big kick from the surplus of Eddie Fitzpatrick although that's not guaranteed. 

Transfers will tell the tale for the six seats up for grabs in the Edenderry area with only Fitzpatrick nailed on at this stage. 

Follow live Offaly Local Election count results with our dedicated live blog here.