Longford #LE24: Majority of Longford MD boxes accounted for

With almost 4,000 of the 13,475 potential votes in Longford MD logged by the tallymen the prospect of Fianna Fáil getting four seats has been noted by party faithful.

Such predictions are fraught with difficulty as transfers often put pay to trends established with the first preference votes.

With Seamus Butler leading the field after the tallying of 13 boxes, strong showings from Martin Monaghan (410), Uruemu Adejinmi (332), Kevin Hussey (319) have the party followers in buoyant mood.

Fine Gael's top performers Peggy Nolan (557) and Gerry Hagan (393) and Niall Gannon (259) have established a strong foothold for the party in what will undoubtedly be a long race.

Sinn Fein's James Donnelly has a respectable 259 votes so far and will be hoping to build that up before all the boxes are open, even still he will need a lot of early transfers to keep in the race.

Likewise independent candidates Sadia Athar (176) and Mujahid Manzoor (185) have polled well for first time candidates in Longford MD.

An interesting takeaway from the early figures is the anticipated number of spoils. There is little doubt that the election agents will be making the case for their candidates for the 104 votes that the tally men have noted as spoiled.