Directly Elected Mayor

well if he is far more concerned with he town and ind est he should say so , but his poster say for a rail to the airport etc

As previously stated, the Mayoral Count does not start till Monday.

However, the boxes have to opened and the votes for the various polls segregated on Saturday morning so assuming that there are tally "persons" present, I imagine that they will be taking a keen interest in the mayoral votes and perhaps we will have some trends by lunchtime.

On Monday itself, as there is only one "seat to fill", there will be no surpluses to distribute so there will be progressive eliminations, which tend to take less time than choosing and distributing surpluses.

I am guessing too that unless MQ comes in with a huge lead (12,000 to 15,000, assuming a quota of 45,000) in the first count, it will be settled by transfers between DB, DR, HO'D and JM but I wouldn't like to call it yet.

It's a great pity that there hasn't been an opinion poll but sampling the views of 2,000 - 3,000 people costs money that the local media don't have and there is minimal national interest.

Dee Ryan is the current favourite for some reason. Helen O'Donnell had been after being endorsed by JP McManus. Moran and Butler are also contenders, if you take the bookies odds as the single metric.

Yes they are all FGish candidates and that might make the early rounds interesting. Afaik Helen O'Donnell was intended to be the FG candidate until she decided not to be at the last minute. The level of harrassment against Butler makes this understandable I guess. Threats against him and his family. Great replacement theory nutjobs are targetting a lot of FG politicians.

Elisa O'Donovan says she was victimized by people making whatsapp classify her number as spam. I'm a little skeptical because afaik the only way this can happen is if people you've actually messaged report your number.

It would only be possible by people she actually messaged though, right? And surely whatsapp would review it before making a permanent ban? Iirc she had to get a new number, which suggests a permanent ban. It seems more likely that she was just spam texting than that she was targetted in this.

I'd take all the bookies favourites with a pinch of salt... Only one poll matters and that's the one for Friday

There are new posters up for DB, particularly (for some reason😀) in the vicinity of Bobby Byrne's public house).

I don't think that the cartoon-like image does him any favours at all.

If anything it resembles something you would have seen on a gable-end in Leningrad or Leipzig in the early fifties with an accompanying propaganda slogan underneath!

A few months back, I was expecting La Byrne herself to run.

Helen O'Donnell was never in contention for the FG ticket. They might have wanted her, but she was very intent on going Independent for it because of her background in community work.

They've done the same along the footpaths in Hospital. Some businesses not happy as one cafe had a sign up saying they have no affiliation with him and wanted it removed from outside their business. Not sure what the local Tidy Towns committee will make of it.

hes done the same on O'Callaghan Strand by cleeves

Bear in mind today, the 2012 dept of Finance USC tax 'hasn't gone away you know'.

I presume this is in relation to candidate John Moran who advised the USC and the closure of the A&E's? The man hand picked by Michael Noonan for the position but definitely independent

An independent with close links to the party will have a lot of the same policies and might be tempted to join said party

I'd go with the "most likely" situation rather than the "might" situation. The 2 big independents have links and policies very close to Fine Gael. Their chances of joining that party would be much higher than, for example, them joining People Before Profit.