Longford Westmeath General Election 2024 latest: Dave Smyth eliminated but can Flaherty produce Houdini act to claim fifth seat?

Some pundits are predicting that Fianna Fáil’s Joe Flaherty could pull off a Houdini Act and win the fifth seat

Dave Smyth (People Before Profit Solidarity) has been eliminated following the 7th Count but as the Longford Westmeath General Election 2024 count progresses some pundits are predicting that Fianna Fáil’s Joe Flaherty could pull off a Houdini Act and win the fifth seat.

Depending on the order of how candidates are eliminated from the race and transfers, outgoing Deputy Joe Flaherty, who said himself he was ‘facing an uphill battle on a bad push bike’, to retain his seat, could well stage the unlikeliest of comebacks and clinch the final seat.

Also read: Longford TD says he is facing "an uphill battle on a bad pushbike" to retain seat

Flaherty is on 5,458 votes, trailing Sinn Féin’s Sorca Clarke (7,126) by 1,668 votes, and with substantial distributions yet to come, most notably from two other Longford based candidates Gerry Warnock and Barry Campion, along with Athlone based Paul Hogan of Independent Ireland.

Campion is Sorca Clarke’s running mate and with Hogan being a former Sinn Féin candidate, Longford based TD Flaherty will need a lot of luck to go his way if he is to survive.

There are now 11 candidates left in the contest to fill four seats and the leading five contenders are;

Robert Troy, Fianna Fáil 8,549

Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, Independent 8,456

Micheál Carrigy, Fine Gael 7,604

Sorca Clarke, Sinn Féin 7,126

Joe Flaherty, Fianna Fáil 5,458

Troy is still 1,766 votes shy of the 10,315 quota so it may be quite some time before a second candidate is declared officially elected.

Paul Hogan (Independent Ireland) 3,290, Barry Campion (Sinn Féin) 2,384 and Gerry Warnock (Independent) 2,347 are the next three candidates in the poll.

The story so far…………….

ELECTED (quota 10,315)

Peter Burke (Fine Gael), 1st Count 10,864

Eliminated Candidates

Donal Jackson (Independent) 2nd Count

Charlotte Keenan (Independent) 2nd Count

Paul Bradley (Independent) 2nd Count

Carol Okeke (Green Party) 3rd Count

Dympna Cunniffe (Fianna Fáil) 4th CountTanya Cannon (Fine Gael) 5th CountMargaret Alacoque Maguire (Ireland First) 6th CountDave Smyth (People Before Profit Solidarity) 7th Count