LIVE UPDATES: Laois/Offaly election count

19.50pm. It's all over here at the Count Centre in Portlaoise with the results of the 11th and Final Count, which saw Carol Nolan taking the 4th seat and Fianna Fail's Sean Fleming taking the fifth and final seat without reaching the quota.

The full results of the Final Count are:

Sean Fleming (+496) 11,364

Pippa Hackett (+641) 7,109

Carol Nolan (+3,157) 12,521

18.35: The results of the 10th Count have seen former Fine Gael Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, being elected to the third seat in Laois/Offaly after he benefitted from the transfer of 3,339 votes from the elimination of his Party colleague, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy,

This Count also saw the elimination of former Renua leader, John Leahy, who amassed a total of 5,669 votes.

The full results of the 10th Count are as follows:

Charlie Flanagan (+3,339) 11,757

Sean Fleming (+192) 10,868

Pippa Hackett (+504) 6,468

John Leahy (+417) 5,669

Carol Nolan (+437) 9,364

John Leahy has now been eliminated and his votes will be distributed.

16.54pm: The results of the 9th Count (the disribution of Barry Cowen's surplus of 591 votes) are in, and it signals the end of Marcella Corcoran Kennedy's political career. Here are the latest figures:

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+38) 5,195

Charlie Flanagan (+22) 8,418

Sean Fleming ((+349) 10,676

Pippa Hackett (+23) 5.964

John Leahy (+80) 5,252

Carol Nolan (+79) 8,927

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy has now been eliminated and her votes are being disributed.

15.50pm: The results of the 8th Count are in, and Barry Cowen has finally made it over the line! This Count also saw both John Leahy and Pippa Hackett overtake Fine Gael's Marcella Corcoran Kennedy. 

Carol Nolan, meanwhile, is continuing to power ahead in the transfer stakes,and is now over 450 votes ahead of Charlie Flanagan, so definitely not a good day at the office for the Fine Gael organisation in Laois/Offaly.

The results are as follows:

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+240) 5,157

Barry Cowen (+2,464) 12,162

Charlie Flanagan (+109) 8,396

Sean Fleming ((+492) 10,327

Pippa Hackett (+130) 5,941

John Leahy (+351) 5,172

Carol Nolan (+495) 8,848

Barry Cowen's surplus of 591 votes is now being distributed.

 

14.38pm: Carol Nolan has proved herself to be remarkably transfer friendly in this election and has been picking up transfers right across the board to the point where she is now 66 votes ahead of one of the most high-profile members of the outgoing Government, Fine Gael Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, after the Seventh Count,

Nolan picked up a whopping 1,244 votes as a result of the elimination of food poverty campaigner, Ken Smollen to bring her up to 8,353 votes. Flanagan, on the other hand, picked up a mere 84 votes, and now stands at 8,287. 

There are no more Laois candidates in the race, which means that Charlie Flanagan is unlikely to be in a position to benefit from a substantial transfer of votes from any quarter.

Carol Nolan is sure to benefit hugely from the elimination of Independent John Leahy and Fine Gael's Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, both of whom are based in South Offaly, which raises the very real possibility that she could take the fourth seat in Laois/Offaly with Charlie Flanagan being the last to romp home.

 

14.29pm: The results of the Seventh Count are as follows:

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+134) 4,917

Barry Cowen (+456) 9,698

Charlie Flanagan (+84) 8,287

Sean Fleming (+99) 9,835

Pippa Hackett (+568) 5,811

John Leahy (+629) 4,821

Carol Nolan (+1,244) 8,353

Peter Ormond (+89) 4,449

Peter Ormond has been eliminated and his votes will now be distributed.

 

12.50pm: The results of the Sixth Count are in and they are as follows;

Quota: 11,571

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+107) 4,783

Barry Cowen (+76) 9,242

Charlie Flanagan (+382) 8,203

Sean Fleming (+574) 9,736

Pippa Hackett (+670) 5,243

John Leahy (+129) 4,192

Carol Nolan (+303) 7,109

Peter Ormond (+26) 4,360

Ken Smollen (+301) 3,941

Ken Smollen has now been eliminated and his votes will be distributed.

 

 

11.50am: The decision of Fianna Fail to run a third candidate from the crowded South Offaly area may have been ill-judged with Peter Ormond, who is Chair of Offaly County Council, currenly trailing in seventh place after the results of the Fifth Count, behind both Green Party candidate, Pippa Hackett and Independent, Carol Nolan.

Pippa Hackett moved ahead of Ormond by 231 votes on the Fifth Count, while Carol Nolan currently lies ahead of him by 2,472 votes. It's a far cry from the heady days when Fianna Fail were virtually guaranteed three out of the five seats in Laois/Offaly and were widely tipped to do the same this time round.

11.32am: The results of the Fifth Count from the Laois/Offaly Count Centre (the distribution of Stephen Tynan's votes (Solidarity PBP), totalling 2,273, are as follows: 

Quota: 11,571

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+23) 4,666

Barry Cowen (+36) 9,166

Charlie Flanagan (+30) 7,821

Sean Fleming (+56) 9,162

Pippa Hackett (+484) 4,565

John Leahy (+187) 4,063

Carol Nolan (+372) 6,806

Peter Ormond (+14) 4,334

Ken Smollen (+366) 3,640

Noel Tuohey (+384) 3,190

Noel Touhey (Lab) has been eliminated and his votes will now be distributed.

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10.36am: While all is quiet in the Count Centre in Kew Lew Business Park this morning, early political arrivals to assess the current political mood include Charlie Flanagan and the Green's Pippa Hackett, who is accompanied by her husband and local Green Cllr, Mark, and her four children.

10am: We have the results from the Fourth Count (the distribution of Pauline Flanagan's votes, totalling 1,894) and this is the current state of play.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (+49) 4,643

Barry Cowen (+211) 9,130

Charlie Flanagan (+116) 7,791

Sean Fleming (+916) 9,106

Pippa Hackett (+90) 4,081

John Leahy (+14) 3,876

Carol Nolan (+72) 6,434

Peter Ormond (+183) 4,320

Ken Smollen (+13) 3,294

Noel Tuohey (+142) 2,806

Stephen Tynan (+30) 2,273

The non-transferable votes were 17.

Stephen Tynan from Solidary People Before Profit has now been eliminated and his votes will be distributed.

9.39am Monday,February 10th:

Good morning. Geraldine Grennan here reporting from a very quiet, and very chilly Count Centre in Portlaoise where we are entering Day Two of the election count in the five-seater constituency of Laois/Offaly. With only one seat filled yesterday by Sinn Fein candidate, Brian Stanley, who topped the poll wth 16,654 first-preference votes, the other four seats have yet to be decided. Fianna Fail will take the second and third seats, with Barry Cowen and Sean Fleming, and Fine Gael's outgoing Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan is poised to take the fourth seat,

Former Sinn Fein TD, Carol Nolan, who left the Party in June of last year when she disagreed with their stance on abortion, is widely tipped to take the fifth and final seat.

At the moment, the votes of Fianna Fail's Pauline Flanagan, who was eliminated last night, are being distributed and we are expecting a fourth count result in about ten minutes.

 

22.42pm; Results of the third count put Carol Nolan on 6,362 votes, having received 180 votes from the elimination of John Daly and Noel O'Rourke, while Marcella Corcoran Kennedy received 9 votes, bringing her to a total of 4,594. Bar a very unforeseen set of circumstances here, Carol Nolan is still very much on course to take the fifth seat.

The Count has now been adjourned for the evening and will resume again at 9am tomorrow morning (Monday) when Fianna Fail's Pauline Flanagan's votes (totalling 1,874) will be distributed. As she was the candidate with the lowest number of votes after the third count she was eliminated.

21.43pm; As she is hotly tipped to take the fifth and final seat in Laois/Offaly, a delighted Carol Nolan told the Offaly Independent that she felt it was  "very unfair" that she had been completely "written off" by large sections of the media, and by the bigger political parties during the general election campaign,

"I left Sinn Fein in June 2018 and from the minute I left I began to build a team of about 30 people, and I fought a far better campaign that I did in my two previous elections...this is my third election in six years, I was written off in the last general election, in the local elections and again this time, and I thought it was very unfair, as I had the work put in."

Asked what she attributed her impressive vote to, whether it was her pro-life stance or her workrate, she said it was "a combination of the two" and she added that she works "very very hard and is very accessible as a TD" at her constituency clinics and in her offices. She added that Sinn Fein probably didn't think she had "a ghost of a chance" of taking a seat, and she said she had a "far better machine" than if she had stayed in the Party. 

She said she had "once again defied the assumptions" of the political pundits. Since she left Sinn Fein she said she has "closely aligned" herself with the rural independence group and has been very loyal to them since she left Sinn Fein, She said she would be interested in  being part of a technical group which would have speaking rights in the Dail. "Having speaking rights would be very important to me" she added.

 

21.15pm: The distribution of Brian Stanley's surplus has just ended, with Carol Nolan getting 746 votes and Marcella Corcoran Kennedy benefitting by just 66 votes. This puts Carol Nolan on a total of 6,183 votes and Marcella Corcoran Kennedy 1,698 votes behind on 4,585. The two candidates with the lowest votes, Noel O'Rourke (Renua) and John Daly (the National Party) have now been eliminated and their votes are now being distributed..

20.30pm; And the wait goes on......the distribution of Brian Stanley's surplus is being eagerly awaited here, as it could have a big bearing on the destination of the fifth and final seat. If Carol Nolan gets a significant amount of his transfers, she is very definitely in pole position to take the seat as she is already almost 1,000 votes ahead of Fine Gael's Marcella Corcoran Kennedy after the first count.

18.30pm: Fine Gael's Marcella Corcoran Kennedy has arrived at the Count Centre and is currently deep in conversation with her Parliamentary Assistant and Fine Gael Cllr for the Tullamore Electoral Area, Neil Feighery.

18.20pm; Fianna Fail's Barry Cowen has arrived at the Count Centre with his wife, Mary, and members of his family. Also spotted were Mary Cowen, wife of former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, and former Sinn Fein TD and now-Independent, Carol Nolan, who is well in contention to take the fifth and final seat in Laois/Offaly.

5.58pm: Jubilation in the Count Centre here in Portlaoise as Brian Stanley is elected on the first count with 16,654 votes and was hoisted aloft by a huge crowd of supporters waving green, white and gold flags.

The results of the First Count are as follows:

Brian Stanley 16,654

Barry Cowen 8,677

Sean Fleming 7,636

Charlie Flanagan 7,463

Carol Nolan 5,436

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy 4,519

Peter Ormond 4,073

John Leahy 3,463

Pippa Hackett 3,494

Ken Smollen 2,611

Noel Tuohy 2,011

Pauline Flanagan 1,744

Stephen Tynan 910

Johnn Daly 441

Noel O'Rourke 290

 

 

16.43pm: The full tally for the Laois/Offaly constituency,in descending order, is as follows:

Stanley  16,319

Cowen  8,525

Fleming  7,642

Flanagan  7,318

Nolan  5,195

Corcoran Kennedy  4,388

Ormond  4,189

Leahy  3,482

Hackett  3,387

Smollen  2,599

Noel Tuohy 1,952

Flanagan (Pauline FF) 1,911

Stephen Tynan 849

John Daly 434

Noel O'Rourke 309

The projected quota is11,383

 

16.11pm; Sinn Fein poll topper in Laois/Offaly, Brian Stanley, strongly condemned what he described as the "hatchet job" which the media and members of the established political parties tried to do on Party Leader, Mary Lou McDonald, in the final days of the election campaign.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent, Deputy Stanley said "we knew we were going to do well, but the scale of it, nobody seen it coming, not even ourselves, but having had organisational difficulties in Offaly in the past, we have a great team on the ground now and I would like to acknowledge that."

Referring to his strong showing in North Offaly, Brian Stanley said, while he is from South Laois, his family had lived in Edenderry and both he and his father worked in Bord na Mona. "I drew peat from Mount Lucas" he said.

He said the rise of Sinn Fein is "a big blow to the establishment parties" and the "hatchet job" which various elements in the national media and other political parties had tried to perform on Mary Lou McDonald had" actually backfired....younger people are actually making up their own minds and are not being led and said by Dublin 4" he added.

Asked if he would see himself in Government, Deputy Stanley said "obviously every party wants to be in Government" and their aim is to be in power. "I joined Sinn Fein many years ago when it wasn't popular, when we were on less than 1%, when you were censured, harassed and arrested and I remember all that, and the fact that we are in different place today, you don't want to get carried away, but yes, of course we want to be in power."

He said his preference would be a left of centre Goverment, and the Party want to be in Governnment so they can make changes for all the "ordinary people who are really, really struggling and who have been left behind."

He said there are "no magic wands" but he said "incrementally" Sinn Fein feel they can effect change to make the lives of the "working poor" better in the future.

14.47pm: Waiting for the declaration of the first count, and Brian Stanley is still being mobbed by wellwishers. Could be waiting for another hour (or longer) depending on who you ask. Sean Fleming has been at the Count Centre for the past couple of hours and is now deep in conversation with Pat Malone, a Fianna Fail stalwart from the days when the Party consistently  managed to get three of the five seats in the Laois/Offaly constituency. There has been no sign of either Barry Cowen or Peter Ormond so far, and neither Charlie Flanagan or Marcella Corcoran Kennedy have arrived at the Count Centre either. Pippa Hackett has been here since early morning on what has been a disappointing day for her and her family.

14.04pm: The man of the moment, and poll topper in Laois/Offaly, Brian Stanley was mobbed by wellwishers as he entered the Count Centre just now. A large entourage of supporters have gathered around him and there is much backslapping and congratulations!

13.52pm: With all tallies completed Fianna Fail have taken 22.6% of the vote, Fine Gael are on 17.1% and Sinn Fein, with just one candidate, have taken 23.7% of the vote. Carol Nolan is on 7% and the Greens, fielding Senator Pippa Hackett, have only made a minimal impact with just 5% of the vote.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy is on 6.4% while her Party rival, Charlie Flanagan, is on 10.7%.

An interesting battle ahead for the final seat.

13.22pm. After a lull in proceedings for the past while, we are expecting the final tally to be announced very shortly with 95% of the Laois boxes tallied at the moment, and Offaly completed.

At this stage, many election watchers here are predicting that Carol Nolan could take the fourth seat, as she is perceived to be more transfer friendly than any of her rivals. She still remains ahead of both Marcella Corcoran Kennedy and Peter Ormond, and the feeling is that she will get a substantial amount of transfers from Brian Stanley, and she should also benefit from the elimination of Ken Smollen and John Leahy.

12.24pm: With all Offaly boxes tallied now and over 70% of the Laois boxes, here is the state of play.

Stanley 22.4%

Cowen 14.5%

Flanagan 9.6%

Fleming 9.2%

Nolan 8.7%

Ormond 7.2%

Corcoran Kennedy 7.1%

Leahy 5.9%

Hackett 4.8%

Smollen 4.3%

With Carol Nolan ahead of both Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (by almost 1,000 votes) and also ahead of Peter Ormond, she is well placed to be in the hunt for the fifth and final seat. It's all to play for.

12.05pm. Former Fianna Fail TD .Mountmellick-based John Moloney has just arrived in the Count Centre and is receiving handshakes from supporters.

11.54. With 70% of boxes tallied in Laois/Offaly, 81% in Offaly and 56% in Laois, here are the figures

Stanley 22.6%

Cowen 13.8%

Ormond 7.6%

Flanagan 4.7%

Nolan 4%

Corcoran-Kennedy 7.2%

Smollen 4.2%

Leahy 5.7%

Fleming 9.1%

Hackett 4.7%

 

11.02. The nationwide shift to Sinn Fein is ringing true in Laois/Offaly with Brian Stanley surging ahead. 51 boxes in Offaly have been tallied and 21 in Laois and Stanley is on 20.3% of the vote with Cowen on 14.7%. 

Fine Gael have 8.2%, Flanagan on 9.2% and the Greens on 4.6%. Sean Fleming is on 7.6% and John Leahy on 7.2% with Carol Nolan on 11% and Ormond on 11.2%

Carol Nolan appears to be polling well, and while she is not expected to poll particularly well in Laois, where she would be less well-known, she could benefit from the surplus of her former Party running mate, Brian Stanley, which, by all indications, could be sizeable.

Early tallies from Croghan National School 1 show Cowen on 79, Flanagan on 54, Nolan on 29 and Corcoran-Kennedy on 21 with 2 for Peter Ormond.

Bracknagh National School tallies show Cowen on 88, Stanley on 86, Corcoran-Kennedy on 38 and Flanagan on 44.

In Daingean, Cowen and Stanley are again very close, on 142 and 125 respectively, with the two Fine Gael candidates, Corcoran-Kennedy and Stanley on 35 and 18.

Pippa Hackett from the Green Party has been in the Count Centre since 9am but the Green Party do not seem to have made any major inroads so far in Laois/Offaly

 

 

Join Geraldine Grennan and Tadhg Carey here on our election special for live updates from the Laois/Offaly election count in Portlaoise, from 9am on Sunday. #GE2020 #LaoisOffaly

 

CANDIDATES:

Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella (Fine Gael)

Cowen, Barry (Fianna Fail)

Daly, John (The National Party)

Flanagan, Charlie (Fine Gael)

Flanagan, Pauline (Fianna Fail)

Fleming, Sean (Fianna Fail)

Hackett, Pippa (The Green Party)

Leahy, John (Independent)

Nolan, Carol (Independent)

Ormond, Peter (Fianna Fail)

O'Rourke, Noel (Renua Ireland)

Smollen, Ken (Irish Democratic Party)

Stanley, Brian (Sinn Fein)

Tuohy, Noel (Labour Party)

Tynan, Stephen (Solidarity-People Before Profit)