After a long day of counting, eight candidates have been eliminated from the race and the fifth candidate is expected to be deemed elected from the Wexford district to the County Council within the next two hours.
Independent candidate Paul O’Hanlon was the first to be eliminated earlier this afternoon.
Shortly afterwards David Lloyd of Direct Democracy Ireland was also eliminated.
The Green Party’s Danny Forde and Independent candidate Richard (Do Do) Lawlor were also excluded at approximately 5p.m. and from that point on the pace has picked up.
Fine Gael’s Mark Sandra Lacey and Mark Fenlon and Labour’s Bernie Mullen have been eliminated in the past hour.
Fianna Fail’s Fergie Kehoe, Sinn Fein’s Mick Roche and Fine Gael’s Frank Staples are all polling strongly and are expected to be deemed officially elected before the night is out.
The final two seats are expected to go to Independent candidate David Hynes and People before Profit’s Deirdre Wadding.
Former mayor Jim Allen (Fine Gael) is expected to lose his seat.
The biggest surprise thrown up so far is the strong performance by political new comer and independent candidate Leonard Kelly. The Wexford based engineer received 499 first preference votes.