Ó Snodaigh pips Byrne for seat after cliffhanger

Aengus Ó Snodaigh of Sinn Féin won the final seat in Dublin South Central after a tough battle with Eric Byrne of the Labour Party.

Ó Snodaigh went on to retain the seat by 69 votes on the 10th count after a recheck of ballot papers which lasted several hours on Saturday. The Sinn Féin candidate, who polled 4,825 first preferences, was considerably ahead of Byrne for most of the counts.

However the gap narrowed significantly as a result of transfers received by Byrne from the surplus of his party colleague Mary Upton, who was elected on the ninth count.

Byrne was no stranger to lengthy recounts.

In the 1992 general election he lost out narrowly to Ben Briscoe of Fianna Fáil for the final seat in the constituency after a ten-day marathon which involved the recounting and rechecking of votes.