Dublin South-Central: Battle between Smith and Ardagh enters fourth day

The Dublin South-Central vote recheck has been adjourned until Tuesday morning.

The returning officer will give a formal decision on how many of the disputed votes are invalid in the race between People Before Profit candidate Brid Smith and Fianna Fail’s Catherine Ardagh for the fourth seat.

The number of contentious votes in the Dublin South-Central recheck totalled about 170.

“I’m delighted it’s over for the night. I’m going to sleep my bloody head off,” said Ms Smith when a halt was called to the proceedings.

All of the almost 43,000 votes cast in the constituency were re-checked.

Ms Smith was ahead at the end of the final count when Ms Ardagh sought a recount.

The count was adjourned after 11 hours, which included about nine hours of discussion on each of the disputed votes.

The returning officer heard submissions from the legal teams of both candidates on each disputed vote and will announce on Tuesday how many are invalid.

Sinn Féin’s Aengus O Snodaigh topped the poll and was elected first. Independents for Change TD Joan Collins came in second and Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne was the third candidate to retain her seat.

Ms Smith said last night: “I’m very hopeful that I’m going to win the seat. It’s been a long old process but a very educational one.”

Ms Ardagh said she would wait and see the outcome of the disputed votes.

She said at this stage it was theoretical but “there’s always the option of going to the courts”.

She said she would like to see a proper recount “where the votes are thrown up in the air and recounted”. She said that would have a major impact on transfers.