Limerick's Kieran O'Donnell on track to secure Seanad seat

KIERAN O'Donnell is on course to secure election to the Cultural and Educational panel of Seanad Eireann.

After the 19th count, the former Fine Gael deputy had climbed to a multiple of 140,264 votes, and is edging closer to the quota of 187,167.

He looks set to take the fourth seat on the panel, with three eliminations still to come.

However, there was bad news for Fianna Fail councillor Michael Collins, who was eliminated on the tenth count, having secured a vote multiple of 25,132 votes.

Only two of the five seats on the panel have been filled so far, with the former Mayor of South Dublin Fintan Warfield, Sinn Fein, being elected on the first count. Fianna Fail's Keith Swanwick was elected after the 19th count.

Unlike Dail elections, each Seanad vote is counted in batches of 1,000. This is to aid the redistribution of surpluses, due to the small size of the electorate.

The 20th count is set to commence shortly, and counting is to continue until midnight tonight, before kicking off again at 9am on Tuesday.

Once the count for the Cultural and Educational panel is complete, the count for the Agricultural panel will kick off.

Seeking election here are Fine Gael councillors Maria Byrne and John Sheahan.

Counting on the Labour panel will then follow, with Anti-Austerity Alliance councillor Cian Prendiville and Siptu official Paul Gavan of Sinn Fein hoping to win places.

Excellent information today from @OireachtasNews on #25thSeanad election. Made my job covering it for @Limerick_Leader much easier.

— Nick Rabbitts (@Nick468official) April 25, 2016

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