Total poll: 8,356
Valid poll: 8,265
Quota: 1,654
Number of seats: 4
COUNT ONE
Adams Margaret FF 1,613
Flynn Peter FG 1,694
Keating Dave SF 418
King Tom Ind 68
Martin Keith Lab 602
Navin (O’Malley ) Caroline FF 670
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,304
O’Malley John FG 1,685
Wilson Andy Ind 211
Peter Flynn and John O’Malley elected. Flynn’s surplus to be distributed next count.
COUNT TWO
Adams Margaret FF 1,620 (+7 )
Keating Dave SF 421(+3 )
King Tom Ind 69 (+1 )
Martin Keith Lab 611 (+9 )
Navin Caroline FF 672 (+2 )
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,321 (+17 )
Wilson Andy Ind 212 (+1 )
No one elected. Tom King and Andy Wilson eliminated. Their votes distributed.
COUNT THREE
Adams Margaret FF 1,648 (+28 )
Keating Dave SF 471 (+50 )
Martin Keith Lab 712 (+101 )
Navin Caroline FF 683 (+11 )
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,367 (+46 )
No one elected. John O’Malley’s surplus distributed.
COUNT FOUR
Adams Margaret FF 1,655 (+7 )
Keating Dave SF 473 (+2 )
Martin Keith Lab 715 (+3 )
Navin Caroline FF 685 (+2 )
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,384 (+17 )
Margaret Adams elected. Dave Keating eliminated. Keating’s votes to be distributed next count.
COUNT FIVE
Martin Keith Lab 912 (+197 )
Navin Caroline FF 744 (+59 )
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,465 (+81 )
No one elected. Caroline Navin eliminated. Her votes to be distributed next count.
COUNT SIX
Martin Keith Lab 976 (+64 )
O’Malley Austin Francis FG 1,830 (+365 )
Austin Francis O’Malley elected. Keith Martin eliminated.
Newcomer Flynn tops poll
Westport’s Peter Flynn begins his foray into county politics with overwhelming support after topping the Westport Electoral Area poll and securing the first of three Fine Gael seats in the four seat constituency.
To rapturous rounds of applause in the Ruby Room in the TF Hotel, Flynn, who failed to be elected in 2004 with a final count of 1,442 votes, received 1,694 first preference votes, 40 votes above the 1,654 quota. Party colleague John O’Malley — who was the tallymen’s favourite to top the poll — also was elected on the first count with 1,685 votes, 433 more votes than his 2004 1,252 first preference total.
At the bottom of the first count were Independent candidates Tom King (98 votes ) and Andy Wilson (211 votes ), both of whom were eliminated after the second count.
Fianna Fáil’s Margaret Adams, who in 2004 topped the poll with 1,444 first preference votes, came out with a higher figure of 1,613 on the first count, but it took until the fourth count for her to be elected after gaining transfer votes from Flynn (7 ); King, Wilson (28 ), and John O’Malley (7 ), bringing her to a final total of 1,655.
By this stage it was a faded contest for Sinn Féin’s Dave Keating who finished with 473 votes before being eliminated with the majority of his votes (197 ) transferring to Labour candidate Keith Martin, who was eliminated after the sixth count with 976 votes. Martin started with 602 first preference votes.
The last candidate left in the running was Fine Gael’s Austin Frances O’Malley who started with 1,304 first preference votes and after the sixth count gained 365 from elimination of Louisburgh’s Fianna Fáil candidate Caroline Nevin who finished with 744 votes; ensuring that O’Malley was elected, making up the final seat.
Out of the 8,356 votes cast, 91 were invalid and the quota for election was 1,654.
Westport Electoral Area
Peter Flynn FG
Johnnie O’Malley FG
Austin Francis O’Malley FG
Margaret Adams FF
FG-3, FF-1
