ELECTION RECAP: How the East was won

IT wasn’t quite Holmes v Leneghan all over again from 1999, but it was getting to that stage.

In the end, the words ‘high court’ were only uttered in whispers as a gutted John Sheahan cordially shook the gigantic hands of Neil Cruise after he beat him to the last seat in Swinford Local Electoral area by one vote.

The count for the four-seat Swinford Local Electoral Area began shortly after 10am on Sunday, June 9. By virtue of there being nine candidates and four seats, it could have been a relatively short one.

By the time a bleary-eyed Returning Officer John Condon made his final announcement on the matter, it was 12.07am on Tuesday morning.

Swinford was always going to have a big say in this particular election.

From the word ‘go’, each incumbent councillor had sown a field of votes in their respective areas that yielded abundantly when the ballot papers hit the tables in the TF.

For Cllr John Caulfield, it was Kilkelly; for Cllr Neil Cruise, it was Foxford; for Cllr Murray it was Charlestown and for Cllr Adrian Forkan it was Kiltimagh that helped them to over 1,200 first preferences respectively on the first count. They were going to be hard stopped in their hometowns.

In Swinford, however, it was all to play for.

The retirement of once-promising Fianna Fáil’s Michael Smyth left a big electoral void in a town with almost 1,500 people and no county councillor. Into that void dived Antoinette Peyton and John Sheahan.

Sheahan and Cruise have history. In 2014, the veteran Sinn Féin member lost out to him by 57 votes when ran in the then-eight-seat Ballina Local Electoral Area.

Ten years later, he ran him even closer yet again. This time, Swinford had a big say.

His main opponent was Fine Gael’s Antoinette Peyton, a 23-year-old law graduate from Killasser.

She made a solid electoral debut, securing 877 first preferences, but not enough to get her past the third count, by which time Sheahan had surpassed her by over 300 votes.

But it was her transfers that ultimately got her party colleague over the line by the skin of his teeth.

“I’ll be honest with you, when the ballots were first pulled out I didn’t think there was going to be much of a chance,” a humbled and exhausted Neil Cruise told this newspaper in the immediate aftermath of his election.

He had every reason to be worried.

The first count put Cllr Gerry Murray out in front with 1,586 first preferences. Behind him was Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Adrian Forkan with 1,460. His party colleague John Caulfield took 1,325 Number 1s, 17 more than John Sheahan, who was 43 ahead of Neil Cruise.

And so Mr Sheahan remained on the second count and third counts before the only inevitability came to pass with the election of Gerry Murray on 1,818.

With the soft-spoken Charlestown man over the line, Cllrs Forkan and Caufield now led the way with 1,526 and 1,475 votes respectively.

But John Sheahan was still 1,361 votes ahead of Cllr Cruise.

Then the eliminated Antoinette Peyton’s transfers came into play. Two-hundred-and-fifty of them went down the road from Killasser to Swinford to John Sheahan, whereas 325 went to her ailing Fine Gael colleague in Foxford.

The man they call ‘Cruiser’ was finally ahead of Sheahan, but only by 23 votes.

With Cllr Forkan now likely to keep a councillor in Kiltimagh, we suddenly had a full-on three-horse race for two seats.

Cllr Gerry Murray’s surplus was now going to decide everything.

As the clock ticked towards midnight, the fifth count had Cllr Forkan on 1,668, Cllr Caulfield on 1,641, Cllr Cruise on 1,637 and John Sheahan in fifth place - by one vote.

It was clear something was up when John Condon called the remaining candidates to be briefed on the floor of the count centre as hacks, supporters and anoraks fell silent to catch a few words from the tense discussion taking place below them.

Sheahan was then eliminated while the three men standing were deemed elected without reaching the quota of 1,744.

Sinn Féin quickly convened to discuss their next move. A Monday morning recount was then agreed by mutual consent.

Even without the need to re-announce the results of every single count, it was still after 7pm when John Condon announced that, despite some candidates gaining tiny amounts of votes in some counts, there had been no change to their total number.

The candidates were called to be briefed again. This time, Fine Gael’s legal representative, Mayo Coroner Pat O’Connor, was at the table.

Sinn Féin requested another recount, which was granted, much to the chagrin of Cllr Cruise.

Over the next five hours, talk of legal challenges and multiple future counts were tossed around like snuff at a wake before the final verdict was made.

A humble Mr Sheahan accepted his electoral demise and warmly embraced his electoral rivals to rounds of applause before Condon stood to formally announce the result more than 36 hours after the counting first started.

Cllr Caulfield summed up the moral of the story afterwards.

“If there’s anything to be learned from this it’s that every single vote, every number on that ballot sheet should be used.”