Full recount requested after just 31 votes separate Seanad election candidates
The returning officer said Hazel Chu's request for a recount would be considered on Friday morning. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
A request for a full recount has been made in the Dublin University/Trinity College panel in the Seanad election.
The count at Trinity College was adjourned shortly before 10pm on Thursday night after the final count left just 31 votes between the final two candidates.
Independent candidate Aubrey McCarthy finished with 3,741 votes while the Green Party's Hazel Chu had 3,710 — both were short of the quota of 4,450.
With a small margin separating the two, Ms Chu called for a full recount, a request which the returning officer said would be considered when they return to the Trinity exam hall on Friday morning.
The battle between Ms Chu and Mr McCarthy heated up after Ms Chu managed to pick up over 700 votes following the elimination of her Green Party colleague, Ossian Smyth.
The third and final seat was the main focus point in both the university panels which saw a strong showing from the incumbents.
Independent senators Lynn Ruane and Tom Clonan were elected in quick succession in Trinity as had been expected.
Ms Ruane reached quota on the 11th count at Trinity College on the second day of the count with Mr Clonan following behind two counts later.
Over at the RDS, the National University of Ireland panel returned its three senators — Michael McDowell, Rónán Mullen and Alice-Mary Higgins — for another term early on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, counting got underway in the vocational panels once polling closed on Thursday morning with 43 members to be elected across the five panels over the coming days.
The panels will be counted one at a time with the five-seat Cultural and Educational panel up first.
Sinn Féin's Pauline Tully was the first to take a seat getting elected on the second count after falling just two short in the first. The former TD in Cavan-Monaghan lost her seat in November's general election.
Fine Gael's Cathal Byrne was also elected as the count continued late into the night. The Wexford councillor was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the Dáil.
Those in the running to take the three remaining seats include Fianna Fáil's senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee and Shane Curley; Fine Gael's Seán Kyne and Shane O'Callaghan; and Independent councillor Joe Conway.
The other four panels — Agricultural, Labour, Industrial and Commercial, and Administrative — will be counted over the coming days.
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