Final tallies in Offaly Local Election give major clues as to who will be elected

The full final tallies are in for the three electoral areas in the 2024 Offaly Local Elections. Tallies have been taking place for the Birr, Tullamore and Edenderry LEAs all morning and afternoon and we now have a clear picture of who will top the poll and take a seat in each area.

TULLAMORE

Fine Gael's Neil Feighery is on course to top the poll in Tullamore with almost 2,000 first preference votes (1,920). He will be elected on the first count with the quota likely to be around 1,600 votes. 

A number of other candidates are very close to that figure too in terms of first preference votes and should all get elected over the weekend. They are Frank Moran (FF) on 1,384, Tony McCormack (FF) on 1,329, Sean O'Brien (Ind) on 1,312, Declan Harvey (FF) on 1,237, Aoife Masterson (SF) on 1,236 and Ollie Bryant (FF) on 1,133.

The Fianna Fail candidates will transfer well to one another which will make it very hard for candidates behind Ollie Bryant to make up the difference. Sandy Smollen Feehan is closest on 791 votes based on the complete tally but is almost certainly too far behind Bryant to close the gap. 

You can see the first full tally from Tullamore LEA below:

EDENDERRY

The picture is also becoming clear in Edenderry with all 30 boxes to be counted tallied there. Fianna Fail's Eddie Fitzpatrick will top the poll and get elected on the first count with 1,770 votes based on tallies. The quota will be just below 1,300 votes.

Fergus McDonnell has made a spectacular return to local politics and has almost doubled his first preference votes from 2019. He has grabbed over 1,000 votes (1,087), according to the tallies. 

FOLLOW UPDATES: Our dedicated live blog has all the results, news and views from the Offaly elections

Next up is Claire Murray (FF) on 955 votes, Liam Quinn on 948 and Noel Cribbin on 832. They have a way to go to meet the quota but will almost certainly be elected once transfers start getting dished out.

That leaves a fight on for the final seat and it would appear the second Claire Murray in the race, the Sinn Féin hopeful, is in poll position with the most first preference votes of the remaining candidates with 707. However, John McNamee (SD) on 559 and Robert McDermott (FF) on 552 are both close enough to mount a challenge when it comes to transfers.

McDermott in particular will benefit from two Fianna Fail candidates likely to get elected ahead of him. Rory Ryan (SF) getting eliminated early will help Claire Murray and it could come down to a handful of votes in the end. It's hard to predict the transfers John McNamee will get as a first-time candidate but he's not out of it at this stage.

BIRR

The tallies in Birr have Peter Ormond (FF) topping the poll with 1,876 votes, followed by John Leahy (Ind) on 1,686, John Clendennen (FG) on 1,498 and Hugh Egan (FG) on 1,122. All four are assured of a seat if the tallies are as accurate as usual but almost all will have to await transfers for eliminated candidates.

The battle for the final two seats will be very interesting with Sean Maher of Sinn Féin leading the chasing pack behind the big four on 864 votes. Next is Barbara Daly (FF) on 827, Aubrey Hennessey-Kennedy on 783 and Clare Claffey on 633 votes. The Peter Ormond transfers will help fellow Fianna Fail candidates Hennessey-Kennedy and Barbara Daly while Sean Maher and Clare Claffey will also be hopeful of significant transfers. This one could come down to the wire.

FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES as counting gets underway this evening at the official Offaly county centre in Mucklagh on our dedicated live blog here.