Voters make desire for change heard

THE PEOPLE have spoken.

After a concentrated three week campaign the verdict of the people was slowly but steadily unveiled at the Redeemer Community Centre in Dundalk, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning last. Despite the cramped venue, with admission strictly by ticket only, the massive cooperation between all of the political parties and others ensured that a full and accurate tally was undertaken. Even with two ballot papers and up to 21 candidates in one of the four electoral areas, a 96 per cent accurate tally was achieved over the 160 ballot boxes in the Louth constituency.

All politics being local, the European ballot details on the tally, while noted, were quickly put aside when the council trends became apparent. With Sinn Fein running at 32 per cent on the Euro tally it came as no surprise that this party was to become the story of the local elections too.

The Drogheda Local Electoral Area, electing the new Drogheda municipal council with Drogheda Borough Council being stood down, managed a fair number of surprises and by 10 p.m. on Sunday night two new councillors had emerged: Alan Cassidy and Kenneth Flood, both from Sinn Fein. Two outgoing councillors, Frank Maher and Michael O'Dowd had failed to secure election.

For Sinn Fein, with three elected out of three running, it was a stunning performance, mirroring, or even bettering, their national performance. Imelda Munster polled the highest individual vote (2,317 votes) to top the poll, 900 votes ahead of Labour’s Paul Bell, who took the second seat, with both elected on the first count. Despite the spread in the Sinn Fein vote, with the other two candidates, Alan Cassidy on 1,188 and Kenneth Flood on 502, transfer rates of 68 per cent and then an incredible 81 per cent saw the two Sinn Fein men easily take their seats later in the count.

Next elected was the long serving borough councillor Tommy Byrne of Fianna Fail, who had polled over 1,000 votes on the first count, passing the quota on count 12. In time it emerged that he would be the sole FF success, as colleague Frank Maher, after a lifetime of services to the party as an organiser and then as an elected representative, bowed out on count 15. The third Fianna Fail runner, John Govern had a good first outing and his transfer kept his party in contention for two seats.

Frank Godfrey, who took a final seat the last time, was a magnet for transfers on this occasion and, after polling 716 on the first count he was elected on the 15th count, securing a quota to take the sixth seat.

For Fine Gael, it was a mixed bag. They secured three seats from less than 2.5 quotas of first preferences. Their three successful runners, Kevin Callan, Oliver Tully and Ritchie Culhane, were elected without reaching the quota. That meant there were no seats for Garret or Michael O'Dowd, highlighting that running five candidates in the contest was the wrong option for the party.

Labour candidate Pio Smith had a long wait to see if he would again be joining Paul Bell on the council. With Ciaran McKenna of the Anti-Austerity Alliance and Anthony Connor and Ronan Mooney of Direct Democracy Ireland polling well, Labour had to wait long in to Sunday evening before Pio Smith pipped Ronan Mooney by 34 votes to take the final seat. In a disastrous outing for Labour nationally, the Drogheda performance was one of the best in the country.

The Green Party candidate, Michael McKeon, had found transfers hard to come by and was eliminated on the eighth count. Earlier eliminations saw Stephanie Valla-Black of People Before Profit Alliance and independents Julie Feely and Jeff Rudd eliminated. But they should be proud that they put their name forward, offered the people a choice and strengthened the democratic process by doing so.

Turn-out was in line with national trends, but was nevertheless a disappointing low at 46 per cent. The two Ballsgrove boxes, at 60 per cent were well above that, but three Rathmullen boxes were under 37 per cent as were two boxes at Bothar Brugha, and the box at Bolton Street school. Four candidates scored ‘over 100 votes in a box', with Imelda Munster doing that twice in Rathmullen school and twice in Bothar Brugha school. Paul Bell made the ton in both of the Ballsgrove boxes. Oliver Tully secured over 100 in both Termonfeckin boxes and Kenneth Flood was over 100 in the Aston Village No. 1 box.

It is expected that the new council will meet in the next two weeks.