Waterford’s Grace O’Sullivan is in third place after the 16th count in Ireland South in the European Parliament.
However, there’s just 4,000 votes separating her and three other candidates in the race for seats.
Breaking: The results of count 16 in #IrelandSouth are in, @malcolmbyrne transfers will now be distributed which should see party colleague @BillyKelleherTD over the line but @mickwallace could also be elected in count 17 #iestaff via @Elaine_Loughlin pic.twitter.com/PkfBdCShC1
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) May 29, 2019
Deirdre Clune of Fine Gael is also back in the hunt for a seat after a huge transfer of votes.
The votes of her running mate Andrew Doyle and Labour’s Sheila Nunan were distributed, with Clune picking up more than 20,000 of the 80,000 transfers.
Grace O’Sullivan picked up 8,382 votes which pushed the Waterford Senator ahead of Fianna Fail’s Billy Kelleher in the race for seats, though Mr Kelleher is expected to take a significant portion of transfers from his now eliminated running mate Malcolm Byrne.
The reaction from #TeamGrace after that last count? Screaming. We needed to do well out of Nunan and Doyle and move ahead of Ni Riada, instead we did really well and jumped ahead of Kelleher too while we were at it.#IrelandSouth
— Ed Davitt (@davitter) May 29, 2019
Byrne had just over 80,000 votes, the majority of which are expected to be split between Kelleher and Mick Wallace, with Wallace still leading the way on 101,725 votes.
The next count is not due until late tonight, with speculation rife that both Kelleher and Wallace could be elected.
