Fine Gael in charge at Laois General Election Count in Portlaoise

Fine Gael is polling nearly of votes in the Laois General Election race according to the latest tally from the Portlaoise Count Centre.

With Cllr Willie Aird running in his first election for the party, Fine Gael has reached 24.1% of votes polled with over a third of the ballot boxes opened and tallied.

Fianna Fáil, which is running two candidates, is second with 21% of the number one vote. Outgoing TD Seán Fleming is running with first-time candidate Austin Stack.

The tally teams have separated Brian Stanley out from other independent candidates as an Independent Republican. He is polling nearly 18% of votes. 

Sinn Féin is polling respectable give the acrimonious departure of Brian Stanley from the party in the weeks before the election was called. Tallies put the party on 14% of the vote.

The party is marginally behind the 15% tallied for independents. There are four non-party candidates in the race apart from Mr Stanley.

The Green Party is running at 2.1% while People Before Profit is on 2%. Aontú appears to be performing best of the smaller parties with almost 3% of the vote. All three parties are running first-time candidates in Laois. 

At current polling it appears as if Willie Aird will top the poll followed by Sean Fleming and Brian Stanley