Canney and Dolan leading Galway East tallies

WITH just over 110 out of 169 cent of the ballot boxes now tallied in Galway East the strong performer, as expected, is Independent candidate Sean Canney (24%) from Belclare.

First time General Election candidate Albert Dolan (FF) (16%) is also doing extremely well and is in strong contention to take a seat.

Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara, who secured just over 7,000 first preference votes in 2020, is polling well also with 14 per cent.

Fine Gael will take at least once seat in this four-seat constituency and ran three candidates. Cllr Pete Roche from Abbeyknockmoy had an impressive performance in 2020. He is now at 9%. His FG colleagues Clodagh Higgins and Niamh Madden both at 6%.

Independent Ireland’s Declan Geraghty is at just over 6 per cent while FF Anne Rabbitte is at 7%.

There are still many boxes in the south of the constituency to be tallied.

O’Hara is doing very well but unless he secures a very high first preference vote, he may face the same challenge he did in 202, in finding it difficult to pick up transfers as the count progresses.

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