Independent candidate John Moran tops Limerick mayoral poll

Independent candidate John Moran topped the Limerick mayoral election poll, but vote counting in the landmark poll will continue as he remains well short of the quota.

Mr Moran received a total of 18,308 first preference votes in the first count, and was followed in second place by another independent candidate, Helen O’Donnell, who received 12,903 votes.

The first round of counting was completed late on Monday afternoon, with subsequent rounds extending long into the evening.

The seventh count was completed at around 11pm, with the eighth set to be the last of the night.

Fianna Fail candidate Dee Ryan is in third place while Fine Gael’s candidate Daniel Butler was in fourth place.

Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan was in fifth place.

The quota is 39,873 votes.

For the first time ever, Irish citizens will select the first directly elected mayor in Limerick, in what is seen as a test case for the rest of the state.

A total of 15 candidates ran for the mayor’s seat.

Dozens of staff are counting the votes at Limerick Racecourse, which is being used as a count centre.

Earlier, Ms O’Donnell said that “all is still to play for”.

“I’ve been in a lot of elections where it’s right down to the wire and right down to the last elimination,” she said.

“It’s all to play for, and we simply don’t know what the result is. We look for transfers as strongly as we look for number one votes.

“Hopefully that will stand to us and we’ve had an amazing canvass and an amazing team and Limerick people are watching a historic election.”

Ms O’Donnell said the election of a mayor for the county will be “really positive” for the area.

She added: “It’s going to be a blueprint for other parts of Ireland to follow. We want to get it right, and we want to get the right person in there and all the candidates have been amazing, and really good to work with. May the best person win.”

Ms O’Donnell said that it is important for an independent candidate to work with all elected councillors and council staff.

“I think to be collaborative and to be a team player is very important. I’ve said that from the get-go, as an independent, you need a stronger working relationship than if you were siloed into a party,” she added.