Cllr David Maxwell in contention to take FG seat in Cavan Monaghan
12,800 votes for the taking after Heather Humphreys shock announcement.
Monaghan’s Cllr David Maxwell (FG) has arrived at the count centre here in Cavan as the gaps begin to tighten around the 10 remaining candidates still in the race for five seats in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency.
Count six has kicked off with the distribution of Val Martin (Irish Freedom Party, 1,591) and Emma Hendrick, (People Before Profit, 1,194), and Cllr Maxwell remains in strong contention to take the Fine Gael seat after securing 6,199 first preference votes. His total after count five concluded is 6,368 while party colleagues Cllr Carmel Brady has 4,352 votes and Cllr TP O’Reilly, 4,493.
Meanwhile, he believes that the 12,000 or so first preference votes secured by Minister Heather Humphreys in the 2020 General Election have been spread out among all three candidates this time round, while around 2,000 of those “returned to their natural home”.
“Yes, Heather got 12,800 votes the last time but Fine Gael didn’t have three candidates running, and if you add up the votes from the three of us, there’s around 10,000 there,” he told The Anglo-Celt. “I believe that we are down that 2,500 or so votes and that’s because Heather was a phenomenal politician who got votes from everywhere - Fianna Fáil people, Sinn Féin people and everywhere.
“Those votes have, this time round, returned to their natural home because Heather didn’t run. I did my own figures a week or two ago and I believed I was in and around the 6,000/7,000 votes. I knew that was achievable but that those votes wouldn’t just come to me, I had to get out and work for them.
"I accept that the party vote is down but Heather was a phenomenal politician and drew votes from every quarter of counties Cavan and Monaghan and from every political persuasion. I am confident that as we move through the count, the transfers will work in my favour.”
Cllr Maxwell also appreciates that he is ahead of his party colleagues and a lead, at this stage in the games is, as he adds, “crucial in the proportional representation (PR) system”.
“I am ahead, I’m in contention and I’m about 2,000 votes ahead of TP O’Reilly and Carmel Brady,” the current Cathaoirleach of CMETB contended.
“And, at the minute things are looking good but you can’t take anything for granted at this stage. Anything can happen with transfers and someone could slip above you and the next thing is you’re 10 votes out.
“So, it’s all to play for but it’s the same situation for all the candidates here. In fact it’s a unique situation here in Cavan-Monaghan because neither the Fianna Fáil Party, the Sinn Féin Party or the Fine Gael Party know how they are going to call it.
“We do know that two Sinn Féin candidates will be elected as will two Fianna Fáil and one Fine Gael. All we know is that Matt Carthy is elected but who is going to get over the line after that is anyone’s guess. I hope I can stay ahead.”
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