Longford #LE24: Murtagh tops poll ahead of McGovern on bad day for FF in Granard

Fine Gael is poised to sweep four seats in the Granard Local Electoral Area, after all tallies were counted for the area on Saturday afternoon. 

Tallies show Garry Murtagh topping the poll, just 30 or so votes ahead of independent Cllr Turlough McGovern who topped the poll in the last election. After that, there is a clean sweep of Fine Gael candidates, according to tally results on Saturday afternoon with Cllr Paraic Brady also set to exceed the quota. 

In fourth place, Cllr Colin Dalton looks set to achieve over 800 first preference votes with his fellow Fine Gael team-mate Padraig McNamara in fifth place, on first preference. 

However, with the vagaries of tallies and surplus transfers etc, the final seat could be a hard-fought one and in doubt right up to the end. 

Fianna Fáil supporters will be hoping that David Cassidy can avoid a wipe out for the party in Granard, and secure one seat out of five there. 

Read our coverage of all electoral areas in Longford in our Longford Leader local election blog here