#Elections2019 explainer: The dispute over Dublin's 'cold storage' Brexit seat

Just as counting was slowly edging to the finish line in the European Parliament Dublin constituency election on Monday night, whispers of a row started to filter through the RDS.

Candidates disagreed over the counting of transfers from eliminated opponents. Close to midnight, the count was suspended. Lawyers arrived and counting staff were sent home.

The dispute was between Independents4Change's Clare Daly and Fianna Fáil's Barry Andrews who were battling it out for the final two MEP seats in the four-seater. Both were still many thousands of votes off reaching 72,790 votes - the quota needed to be elected.

However, neither wanted to end up in fourth place, with the so-called 'cold storage' Brexit seat.

Under changes for Brexit, the Dublin constituency has gone from a three- to a four-seater. But the final seat only comes into effect if Brexit goes ahead.

The quandary for Ms Daly and Mr Andrews was whether the transfer from the candidate in fifth place, Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan, could be counted and added to their final tallies. Traditionally when the last candidate is eliminated, remaining candidates are automatically elected without transfer votes being counted.

But the dispute for the Dublin count centred on a contention by Ms Daly that Ms Boylan's transfers should indeed be added up, which would benefit her. Mr Andrews and his advisors objected. Campaign teams and candidates huddled, debating with returning officer Fergus Gallagher. Neither side was backing down.

In the end, proceedings continued today and after the 15th count, transfers from eliminated Social Democrats candidate Gary Gannon helped pole vault Ms Daly into third place ahead of Mr Andrews. The returning officer then announced that transfers from Ms Boylan would indeed be counted and added to the final tallies.

Ms Daly later went on to take the third seat while her opponent took the fourth so-called 'Brexit seat'.

Academics lashed the Government for confusing legislation which had failed to resolve the spat. This row had all the hallmarks of ending up in the courts. Any challenge could have stalled the outcome for days or weeks.

Instead, a magnanimous Barry Andrews conceded that Ms Daly was too far ahead and took satisfaction from at least being elected as an MEP - albeit an MEP-in-waiting.