The counting of votes for half of Kildare’s eight Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) has commenced today Saturday with the remainder beginning on Sunday.
This morning at the Champions Hall, Curragh Racecourse, the two sets of ballot papers (for the European and local elections) were being checked by the European Local Returning Officer to reconcile the number of papers in each ballot box with the accounts returned from the polling stations.
Afterwards, four count centres will operate for the local elections in the trackside pavilion in Punchestown.
The counts for Maynooth, Celbridge, Clane and Naas LEAs will commence provisionally at 2.30pm today (Saturday) with first count results expected later today. Early indications are that Maynooth will be the first LEA to announce results this evening. Counting is expected to last until around midnight.
The counts for Athy, Newbridge, Kildare and Clane are hoped to start at 9am on Sunday with first counts with first count results expected on Sunday.
These times are not fixed in stone, say Kildare County Council. If there is a reasonable prospect of a count finishing in the early hours of the Sunday morning this option may be taken and may marginally affect the start time on Sunday morning. It is possible the count could continue into Monday.
The Kildare Nationalist are running a live blog here while updates will also be posted on Kildare County Council’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Hashtags that the council will be using are #LE24 #Kildare.
