Seanad Election Results - Voting Pacts Hold Up

national | politics / elections | news report Monday July 23, 2007 16:07 by Maurice Ross

Counting begins on election

Counting began today on the 43 seats on the 5 Vocational panels. Tomorrow counting of the University seats begins. Early indications show that the voting pacts between Greens and Fianna Fáil and between Sinn Féin and Labour are holding up.

The Culture and Education panel was the first constituency to begin counting this morning in Leinster House. Fianna Fáil are likely to loose one seat. There are also intense intra-party battles within Fine Gael and within Fianna Fáil. The Culture and Education vote went as follows: FF 509 votes, FG 354 votes, Labour 198 votes, Independents 11 votes and Green 0 votes.

It is likely there will be a Labour Party gain at the expence of Fianna Fáil. Labour's Alex White topped the poll with 161 first preferences. White was an unsuccessful candidate in the Dublin South constituency. Fianna Fáil are likely to win 2 seats. Cecilia Keaveney, an unsuccessful former FF TD won most FF votes with 131 first preferences. Two outgoing Fianna Fáil Senators Labhras Ó Murchu and Ann Ormonde are going for the one seat. Ó Murchu hold the advantage with 128 on the first count opposed to Ormonde's 115. Outgoing FF Senator Paschal Mooney topped the poll in 2002 but is now certain to loose his seat. Fine Gael's candidates are going for 2 seats. Former Health spokeperson Liam Twomey is likely to get FG's first seat with Colm MacEochaidh and outgoing Senator Fergal Browne going for the remaining FG seat.

A Green Party councillor Tom Kelly from Meath was nominated but did not vote for himself as he achieved 0 votes! This shows that the Green agreement to vote for Fianna Fáil is holding up, however may not be enough to get a government majority due to the SF-Labour deal and the Fianna Fáil set backs in the 2004 local elections.