Battle for final seat appears likely

Battle for final seat appears likely
 
Edwin McGreal
Castlebar
 
A battle for the last seat in Mayo appears on course after early tally figures in the Royal Theatre.
Boxes have been opened in Castlebar and Ballina, with the four strong candidates from those towns each doing well.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has pulled a very good vote already out of Castlebar, and has the highest vote after 30 percent of the boxes have been opened.
The Castlebar-based Fine Gael leader is already past the 3,000 vote mark with 30 per cent of all votes so far and 47 percent of Castlebar votes.
Castlebar rival Lisa Chambers of Fianna FΡil is on 1,300 votes, with 13 percent of the vote from the boxes opened and tallied.
In Ballina her party colleague Dara Calleary is out in front with 18 percent of the vote county wide thus far and 37 percent of Ballina votes. His running tally is currently 1,763.
Fine Gael's Michelle Mulherin is on 15 percent of the vote with 1,572, putting her slightly ahead of Chambers in the race for the last seat.
The Ballina and Castlebar boxes are tilted in favour of the candidates based in those areas but of the rest, Rose Conway-Walsh will be reasonably happy to have pulled over 800 votes already, with under 8 percent of the vote, with her native Belmullet boxes yet to be opened.
Meanwhile with many boxes in his native town of Ballina open, Dr Jerry Cowley's running total of 403 will see him struggle to take a seat, at just under 4 percent of the vote.
Minister of State Michael Ring has over 700 votes pulled thus far and his base areas in West Mayo and Claremorris have yet to be opened.