Counting resumes in Offaly after long delay

With all councillors elected to both the Edenderry and Tullamore Electoral Areas since yesterday (Sunday) the Birr Electoral Area is proving to be much more problematic, with four of the six seats yet to be filled.

Count 6 for the Birr Electoral Area finally got underway after 2pm today (Monday) after a discrepancy was uncovered last night which resulted in the count being adjourned until 10.30am this morning.

The discrepancy was uncovered during the sorting process following the elimination of non-party candidate, Michael Deegan, and the distribution of his 426 votes.

A full recheck had to be carried out on the votes of Michael Deegan (Non Party) when 481 votes were found in his package.

In a detailed explanation at the end of the lengthly process of rechecking Michael Deegan's votes, the Returning Officer Monica Cleary said the recheck had accounted for all the votes that the non-party candidate had amassed throughout the five counts prior to his elimination.

"We identified two packages that had inadvertedly been misplaced, mistakedly placed, in Michael Deegan's holding box" she said . The first was identified on count 3, which was the transfer of John Leahy's surplus and this accounted for 50 votes.

The second package related to the elimination of Ekaterina Koneva (Green Party) on the 4th count which accounted for five votes.

She assured voters that "the randomness" of the count "had been maintained" and that the misplaced packages had been placed in their correct holding boxes, and added that they "do not interfere with any other aspect of the count at this time."