{"id":462895,"date":"2026-05-23T05:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462895\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:11:07","slug":"counting-of-votes-in-bye-elections-to-get-under-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462895\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting of votes in bye-elections to get under way"},"content":{"rendered":"

After weeks of campaigning, the first boxes in the Galway West and Dublin Central bye-elections will open at 9am.<\/p>\n

The bye-elections are being held to fill the D\u00e1il seats vacated by former Independent TD and now President Catherine Connolly, and former Fine Gael TD Paschal Donohoe.<\/p>\n

Voting took place between 7am and 10pm yesterday.<\/p>\n

In keeping with trends, turnout in both bye-election constituencies was below levels seen in the most recent general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Galway West, the final turnout stood at 45% compared to 58% two years ago, with a high of 59% in Maigh Cuilinn and a low of 36% in Renmore.<\/p>\n

In Dublin Central turnout was 39% compared to 52% in 2024, with a high of 52% in Drumcondra and a low of 25% in the north inner city.<\/p>\n

A total of 17 candidates are on the ballot in Galway West, with the only poll of the campaign suggesting a tight race among a number of candidates.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael senator Sean Kyne, Independent Ireland councillor Noel Thomas, Labour councillor Helen Ogbu and Social Democrats candidate Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich are predicted to be among those in contention.<\/p>\n

In Dublin Central,14 candidates are competing, with Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Janice Boylan and Social Democrats councillor Daniel Ennis among those expected to poll well.<\/p>\n

After the first boxes are opened at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club and the RDS in Dublin, a first count is not expected until after midday, with final results likely either tonight or tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"Two
\nTwo stickers being held up by a man and a woman<\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Toghch\u00e1in piloted a new initiative in both constituencies where people could take a sticker to show that they had cast their ballot yesterday.<\/p>\n

The stickers ‘I’m a Voter’ or ‘Is V\u00f3t\u00e1la\u00ed m\u00e9’ were available in eight polling stations in Dublin Central and one in Galway West, in Knocknacarra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After weeks of campaigning, the first boxes in the Galway West and Dublin Central bye-elections will open at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-462895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}