Latest Offaly local election picture for Edenderry with dogfight on the cards

The Offaly local election race is taking shape with three quarters of boxes tallied in the Edenderry LEA this Saturday lunchtime.

Official counting will not begin until this afternoon with a first count result this evening but it's already looking like we have a runaway poll-topper in the Edenderry area. Six seats will be filled in the town area with four candidates missing out.

Fianna Fail's Eddie Fitzpatrick is taking 22% of the vote according to the latest tallies, a whopping 1,215 votes so far. He is likely to exceed the quota and be deemed elected on the first count.

There has also been a very strong performance for fellow Fianna Fail candidate and newcomer, Claire Murray. The Ballybryan woman is strong in the tallies and is in second place with 23 of the 30 boxes in the LEA opened. She has amassed 814 votes from those boxes if tallies are to be believed. 

Fergus McDonnell is next and looks likely now to take a seat and return to Offaly County Council after missing out five years ago. He appears to have benefitted most from John Foley not seeking re-election and is at around 750 votes based on the same 23 boxes tallied. 

LIVE UPDATES: Offaly Local Election count results, reaction and analysis

Liam Quinn has bounced back after a slow showing in earlier tallies and is now fourth with 705 votes from the boxes opened. McDermott, Murray (FF), McDonnell and Quinn appear to be the big four with 17 boxes still to open this afternoon. 

That leaves two seats remaining and Fine Gael's Noel Cribbin will be confident of transfers from those above him in the tallies in order to get over the line. He has around 505 votes from the 23 boxes tallied.

He is trailing Sinn Féin Claire Murray at the minute. The namesake of the Fianna Fail candidate in the same race, she is at 555 but will need transfers. With her party colleague Rory Ryan likely to be eliminated early, that will help, but of the candidates above her, she may miss out on votes to the likes of Cribbin.

It still puts her in a strong enough position when compared to Robert McDermott (351), John McNamee (391) and Mark Hackett (120). McDermott may benefit from an early election of Fianna Fail colleague Eddie Fitzpatrick while John McNamee's transfer strength is hard to gauge as a first-time candidate. He would seem likely to get some bounce from the possible election of other Edenderry town centre candidates like Fergus McDonnell and Noel Cribbin but time will tell if it's enough. 

Basically, one of Claire Murray (SF), Robert McDermott (FF) and John McNamee (SD) will be elected. It has the potential to get very close and a couple above them have the potential to drop back in later counts.

SNAPSHOT

Eddie Fitzpatrick (FF) - will be elected on the first count

Claire Murray (FF) - will transfer well from Eddie Fitzpatrick and looks likely for a seat

Fergus McDonnell (Ind) - Has upped his first preference vote and is looking likely for a seat

Liam Quinn (FG) - Rallying well in his stronghold and should get a seat

Noel Cribbin (FG) - Will transfer well from those above him in the town and should be returned

Claire Murray (SF) - In a dogfight for the last seat and will have to wait on transfers

John McNamee (SD) - Unlikely to get enough on transfers to beat out the bigger party candidates but in the race

Robert McDermott (FF) - Will get transfers from FF candidates above him and others so he's in the race

Mark Hackett (GP) - Tallies suggest he's out of the race unless he gets a big transfer from Eddie Fitzpatrick but seems unlikely

Rory Ryan (SF) - Too far back to have a chance