Locals vote local in Smith (FF) surplus sharing

Independent Brendan Fay's surplus of 196 to be divided next.

Locals voted locally if the sharing of Fianna Fáil's Áine Smith's surplus is anything to go by, with Count two for the Cavan-Belturbet area completed.

Poll topper Smith has a surplus of 332.

Daughter of the late sitting councillor Séan Smith, and niece to Brendan Smith TD, Smith topped the poll in the area with 1,763, where the quota is 1,431.

There are now four candidates within 111 votes of each other, and no eliminations.

Twelve candidates stood.

The biggest winner from that round is party colleague John Paul Feeley, who jumped 109 votes to 1,159.

Feeley was 56 votes shy of the quota of 1,296 in 2014, yet still had to wait until Count 5 to final hear his name called. He topped the poll in this area five years ago with 15.02% of the overall vote.

After Feeley is Sinn Féin's Damien Brady, plus 43 from Smith's surplus to get to 1,088; followed by Fine Gael's Niamh Brady (+33 to 1050); and two votes behind her is Peter McVitty (+60). Behind them is Fianna Fáil's Patricia Walsh (994 +54), still in touching distance, and Sinn Féin's Michael 'Bricker' Wall with an outside chance on 856 (+9).

No candidates were elected in Count 2 in Cavan-Belturbet, and it now moves on to the division of surplus from Independent Brendan Fay's surplus of 196.