THE two main messages signalled by the Waterford electorate were evident as soon as the first count figures were announced just after 4 p.m. on Saturday the total eclipse of the PDs and the slashing of the Labour vote.
Nobody, least of all the candidate herself, had expected that the high profile, consistent and determined campaign by Ms Katharine Bulbulia would be rewarded by fewer than 3,000 votes.
It went against the early opinion poll predictions in the constituency and raised the question whether the multiple visits to the city by PD leader Ms Mary Harney had helped or hindered the candidate.
Ms Bulbulia, though clearly devastated by the result, refrained from criticising her party. But she did concede that her campaign had been rocked by "three Exocet missiles".
There had been time to recover ground after the first two impacts - the PD leader's policy statements on water charges and on social welfare for unmarried mothers.
But there simply had not been time to retrieve the situation after the final bombshell on proposed cuts in public service jobs.
The setback suffered by Labour's Mr Brian O Shea was even more dramatic although he was eventually brought in by line Gael transfers. His first preference vote collapsed from 11,235 in to 5,271 this time.
This steep decline went tar beyond the national percentage slump in La hour support, and the junior Minister admitted that two local issues, had caused difficulties for him - the TV deflector issue and the controversy over the perceived reneging on promises made about the status of Waterford Institute of Technology.
Apart from these surprises, the results demonstrated the strong personal appeal commanded by two candidates in the constituency. Fine Gael's Mr Austin Deasy bore out the preelection predictions by topping the poll - although his first preference vote declined by almost 400 and it took seven counts for him to gain election.
And Mr Martin Cullen demonstrated that his personal support had not been affected by his defection from the PDs to Fianna Fail since the last election. In fact Fianna Fail's tactical innovation of running three candidates paid off all three secured solid votes, and some 4,000 extra Fianna Fail votes materialised, most of them generated in the west of the county by new candidate Mr Ollie Wilkinson.
There was a respectable showing by the deflector candidate, Mr Dermot Kirwan, although he was never really in contention for the fourth seat. And the Workers' Party veteran, Mr Martin O'Regan, increased his 1992 showing by more than 1,000 votes, enabling him to stay in the contest until the ninth and final count.
Fine Gael's second runner, former Waterford mayor Mr Maurice Cummins more than doubled his vote on the last election but was never really in contention.
It seems that there is just one Fine Gael seat in Waterford and that it remains the property of Mr Austin Deasy as long as he wants it.