Labour concerns over recount in Clontarf

The Labour Party has expressed concern at the number of errors discovered in a recount of votes in the Clontarf ward of Dublin City Council, raising the prospect of a possible legal challenge to the result.

The party's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said it was concerned not just about the estimated 70-80 ballot papers that had been incorrectly filed in initial counts but at the length of time the recount had taken.

"It's surprising, to put it at its mildest, that the recount is taking this long," said Mr Gilmore. "To our knowledge a recount has never taken as long, and we think it is related to the number of errors found in the count.

"We will wait to see what the outcome of the recount is before deciding whether other steps need to be taken. But the number of errors is more than what you would normally expect in a poll of this size."

The errors identified could result in as many as 200 changes to the final count, due to the knock-on effect on transfers.

As the recount moves into its fifth day today, Labour's Ms Orla Farrell continues to trail Fine Gael's Mr Naoise O'Muirí in tallies. By yesterday, however, the gap had narrowed from 12 votes to about four.

A spokesman for Dublin City Council said the delay in completing the recount was due to the fact that the gap had shrunk between candidates rather than widened, as was the norm with recounts.

Fine Gael conceded errors had been found, but said it was confident Mr O'Muirí's victory would not be overturned.

Were Labour to snatch the final seat in what has been dubbed "The Battle of Clontarf" it would give the party 16 seats on the local authority, thereby increasing the likelihood of a coalition with Sinn Féin, which holds 10 of the remaining 36 seats.