A FULL RECOUNT is to begin this afternoon in Dublin South East to decide the destiny of the fourth and final seat in the constituency. The decision was announced by the Returning Officer, Mr Brendan Walsh, after an initial recheck of all the ballot papers last night - at the request of the Progressive Democrats - had revealed a number of discrepancies in the count.
Earlier yesterday, the Green Party candidate, Mr John Gormley, had been deemed elected on the 11th count, defeating the PD candidate and outgoing deputy, Mr Michael McDowell, for the last seat by 27 votes.
In an announcement at 11.55 p.m. last night, Mr Walsh said: "We have reached a stage where we have decided it would be better to adjourn and carry out a full recount at 2 p.m. on Monday." Mr Gormley was deemed to have taken the seat early yesterday. However, because the margin was so narrow, the PDs called for a recheck of the bundles of votes.
When the recheck took place later yesterday it was discovered that the figures attached to the bundles did not exactly match figures listed on the official results board. The PDs claimed that the figures recorded on the bundles gave Mr McDowell a winning margin of 13 votes.
Following the discovery of this discrepancy it was decided to recheck all Mr Gormley's votes. This was duly done. Then, following further deliberations between the PDs and the Returning Officer, it was decided shortly after 10 p.m. last night that all the votes cast in the constituency should be rechecked.
In Saturday's first count Mr Gormley came in more than 470 votes ahead of Mr McDowell. The lead crept slowly upwards as the lesser candidates were eliminated. However, both sides knew that the crucial factor would be the distribution of the votes of Mr Eoin Ryan, the successful Fianna Fail candidate.
When this transfer occurred on the eighth count almost 1,500 votes from Mr Ryan's surplus - a huge 70 per cent - passed from Fianna Fail to the Progressive Democrats. Mr McDowell said he was not surprised at the extent of the transfer, since he had been specifically asking for second and third preferences on Fianna Fail doorsteps.
However, it took just under three hours to turn a winner into an apparent loser. Mr McDowell explained it succinctly: "When Joe Doyle's vote moved to Frances Fitzgerald and on to Ruairi Quinn, it looked like a highly motivated Rainbow vote. When it transferred so well to the Greens, it was probably a vote to keep me out.