High hopes that FG can take one seat in Cavan Monaghan
Cllr Trevor Smith (FG) believes that the party’s bid to secure two seats in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency has been scuppered as the results of the first count are awaited here at the Leisure Centre in Cavan.
Hopes were high that the local candidates - Cllr David Maxwell, Cllr Carmel Brady, and Cllr TP O’Reilly - would capitalise on the 12,808 votes left behind by Minister Heather Humphreys who announced her shock retirement from politics in August.
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt, Cllr Trevor Smith, who is part of the local Fine Gael campaign team, highlighted how the party was now facing the very real possibility of just one seat within its reach.
“We had a two-seat strategy but I’m afraid with the turnout and the vote, one seat is all that Fine Gael will, hopefully be taking,” he continued.
“Until we get the results of the first count, we don’t really know where we stand. The tallies should be accurate enough but, until we get the first count done and the candidates with the lowest votes are eliminated, we really don’t know what we are facing.”
Meanwhile, according to the tallies here at the Cavan count centre, Sinn Féin is in contention to take three seats in this five-seat constituency.
Cllr Smith says this won’t be determined until transfers are introduced into the voting system.
“At the moment on paper you might think that will happen but there are a number of candidates with high votes that will have to go out before we can get a better picture of where things stand. It’s far too early to predict where votes will go. For example Shane P. O’Reilly’s votes. Where will they go? Who will they bring up? Sometimes it a bit of luck.
"I’m in the TP O’Reilly camp and I would be hoping that he might be the Fine Gael TD but again It’s going to be tomorrow before we get a clear picture on this.”
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