Seamus Coyle leads in Ballybay-Clones with Sinn Féin and Fine Gael candidates also elected

A Fianna Fáil candidate, outgoing councilor, Seamus Coyle, topped the poll in the first count in the re-run Local Election for the Ballybay-Clones municipal area on Monaghan County Council today.

The election was re-run because of the death of a Fine Gael candidate, Owen Bannigan, on polling day last month.

Coyle, with 1,499 first preferences, was declared elected to one of the six seats, along with two of the eleven candidates, Fine Gael’s Ciara McPhillips, who polled 1,348, and Sinn Féin’s Cathy Bennett, who received 1,295 on the first count.

The electorate was 15,326 and the poll figure was 8,964, representing a turnout of 58 per cent with 73 spoiled votes, and a valid poll of 8,891.

The quota was set at 1,271.,

Other first preferences at the first count were :

Bannigan Eugene (Fine Gael) 1,153

McElvaney Hugh (Fine Gael) 1,075

Treanor Pat (Sinn Féin) 1,041

McPhillips Paul (Ind) 584

Kelly Deirdre (Fianna Fáil) 499

Smyth Michael (Fianna Fáil) 398

Duffy Joseph (Ind) 27

Leonaviciene Raimonda (Green Party) 22.

The distribution of the surpluses obtained by Coyle McPhillips and Bennett, continues with the second count.

The indications are that Fine Gael is likely to claim three of the six seats with Sinn Féin getting two and Fianna Fáil taking one. One of the Fine Gael candidates likely to claim a seat is Eugene Bannigan, the 21-year-old son of the Owen Bannigan.

The tally figures showed Fine Gael with 40 per cent of the votes, Sinn Fein with 27 per cent and Fianna Fail with 26 per cent

The Green Party candidate and two Independents only claimed around 7 per cent of the vote in the area.

No one was elected on the second count which involved the distribution of Ciara McPhillips’ and Cathy Bennett’s total surpluses of 101 votes.