Longford #LE24: Sinn Féin's Barry Campion eliminated as McNamara and Cassidy set to slug it out final Granard seat


Sinn Féin's Barry Campion has been eliminated as Fine Gael's Padraig McNamara and Fianna Fáil's David Cassidy are set to slug it out for the fifth and final Granard Municipal District seat.
Garry Murtagh (FG), Turlough McGovern (Ind) and Paraic Brady (FG) were all elected following the First Count after the trio emphatically exceeded the quota.
The 294 votes of first-time candidate Campion will be distributed during the Fourth Count.
Colin Dalton (FG), on 918 votes, is on course to take the 4th seat and with two Fianna Fáil candidates Marett Smith (323 votes) and Susan Murphy (524 votes) likely to exit the race, FF will be hoping that many of their votes transfer to Cassidy (615 votes) and give him a fighting chance to edge out McNamara (850 votes) and cling on to FF's seat in the north of the county.
GRANARD Municipal District
5 seats
9 candidates
Electorate: 10,955
Poll: 7,168
Spoilt Votes: 63
Valid Poll: 7,105
Quota: 1,185
FIRST COUNT
Paraic Brady, Fine Gael - 1,211
Barry Campion, Sinn Féin - 253
David Cassidy, Fianna Fáil - 543
Colin Dalton, Fine Gael - 820
Turlough McGovern, Independent - 1,413
Padraig McNamara, Fine Gael - 699
Susan Murphy, Fianna Fáil - 434
Garry Murtagh, Fine Gael - 1,450
Marett Smith, Fianna Fáil - 282
Elected: Garry Murtagh, Turlough McGovern and Paraic Brady
SECOND COUNT
(Distribution of G Murtagh 265 surplus)
Barry Campion, Sinn Féin +20 = 273
David Cassidy, Fianna Fáil +57 = 600
Colin Dalton, Fine Gael +63 = 883
Padraig McNamara, Fine Gael +36 = 735
Susan Murphy, Fianna Fáil +76 = 510
Marett Smith, Fianna Fáil +13 = 295
THIRD COUNT
(Distribution of T McGovern 228 surplus)
Barry Campion, Sinn Féin +21 = 294
David Cassidy, Fianna Fáil +15 = 615
Colin Dalton, Fine Gael +35 = 918
Padraig McNamara, Fine Gael +115 = 850
Susan Murphy, Fianna Fáil +14 = 524
Marett Smith, Fianna Fáil +28 = 323
Eliminated: Barry Campion
FOURTH COUNT
(Distribution of B Campion 294 votes)