'Nail biting finish' anticipated in Cavan Monaghan as three FF candidates remain in race
Tranfers will determine outcome.
While it’s going to be “a nail biting finish”, there’s confidence in the Fianna Fáil camp tonight that the party will retain its two seats in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency.
That’s according to Cllr Clifford Kelly who highlighted that “it’s difficult to call it now” because transfers are going to play a big part in the eventual outcome.
Senator Robbie Gallagher in Monaghan; and Deputies Brendan Smith and Niamh Smyth in Cavan are all in contention to take seats at this early stage in the count. “It’s very difficult to call it at the moment; there’s quite a number of candidates who will be going out of the race and it all depends on where the breakdown of their transfers go,” explains Cllr Kelly.
“A lot of the candidates are in east Cavan and that will favour some people. Once the first count is over, the votes start transferring through the second and third count, we will be in a much better position to predict what is actually going to happen.”
He remains confident in the party's ability to take two seats - albeit accepts there may be some change in the personnel.
“We have three Fianna Fáil candidates in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency and I am hopeful that we will get our fair share of transfers and that will help us over the line. At this stage I would be confident that we will take two seats."
Meanwhile, with regard to earlier tallies which indicate the possibility of Sinn Féin taking three seats in this constituency, Cllr Kelly says he doesn’t believe the party can achieve three on this occasion.
“They’re vote is down on the last time and they’d want to get a very substantial transfer of votes from the candidates that go out to give them seats,” he opines.
“I still believe that Fianna Fáil is in with a very good chance of retaining our two seats in this constituency. It’s going to get very exciting here; I’d say it will be a nail-biting finish and I’m confident we’ll do it.”
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