Noel Thomas narrowly ahead of Seán Kyne in Galway West as count to resume shortly

INDEPENDENT IRELAND CANDIDATE Noel Thomas holds a narrow lead over Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne in the Galway West byelection, for which counting will resume at 9am.

It was a long day of counting votes in Lawn Tennis Club Salthill yesterday. Around 45,000 voters went to the polls in the vast constituency, and counting could continue for several hours today.

The early hours of this morning saw Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats take the seat in Dublin Central left vacant by former finance minister Paschal Donohoe, but it’s still all to play for in President Catherine Connolly’s former seat in Galway West.

After four counts, Thomas is leading the race with 10,497 votes, about 600 more than Kyne, who currently has 9,907 votes.

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Of the 16 original candidates in the byelection, 10 remain.

Independent candidates Néill Bairéad, Michael Ryan, John O’Leary, Patrick Feeney, AJ Cahill and Sheila Garrity were eliminated, as well as People Before Profit’s Denman Rooke, Niall Murphy of the Green Party and Orla Nugent of Aontú.

From the first count, which was announced around 6.30pm yesterday, Thomas and Kyne came out on top.

Speaking to The Journal before the first count was done, Thomas predicted correctly that himself and Kyne would be “neck and neck”.

He said today that he feels it has come down to “recognition”, pointing to the fact that himself and Kyne are both long-standing politicians.

Kyne is in fact a former Fine Gael TD and Senator, with Thomas himself a former Fianna Fáil and now Independent Ireland councillor.

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