OPINION: Kildare elections generally reflect the national voting trend
Don't be looking for surprises in Kildare!
Electorally speaking, county Kildare has previously mirrored national trends.
It has rarely thrown up big surprises against the national trend.
Friday’s local election was not an exception.
I was initially surprised there were only five candidates in Leixlip for the three seats there.
Outgoing candidates, Joe Neville (FG), Bernard Caldwell (FF) and Nuala Killeen (Soc Dem), won their seats comfortably.
In Celbridge, Michael Coleman (FF) had opted not to go forward.
His party replacement, long time Celbridge Community Council member, David Trost, topped the poll.
He and his fellow councillors, Claire O’Rourke (SocDems), Lumi Panaite Fahey (FG) and Rupert Heather (Lab), who was co-opted mid term when Ciara Galvin stood down for personal reasons are all newly elected.
Overall a majority of councillors were returned.
Neither Sinn Fein nor the “far right” did well.
The Naas vote proved a thriller with questions over where transfers would go among the 15 candidates looking for seven seats.
For the most part those leading the poll after the first count end up in the seats.
There are, as always, exceptions due to the transfer of votes in our PR system.
It makes the Irish election much more interesting than the UK one with its first past the post system.
Speaking of which, former Kildare South Labour TD, Jack Wall, told us he is heading towards Stoke in the UK next Sunday to do a week’s campaigning for Adam Jogee, who is standing for Labour in the Newcastle Under Lyme constituency on July 4.
The seat has been a long standing Labour one but the Conservatives won it in the last general election.
Jack, who opted not to go forward for the Dail in 2016, told us he has known Adam from his time as chairman of the Irish Labour Parliamentary party and attending the UK Labour Party conferences.