Cullinane 'humble and proud' to be elected on first count

David Cullinane has been re-elected on the first count in Waterford, with 11,936 first preference votes.

Speaking to the Waterford News & Star immediately after election, Cullinane said he felt “humble and proud”, but that he was now looking towards getting running mate Cllr Conor McGuinness elected.

"Obviously I’m very pleased for myself and I want to thank all of those who voted for Sinn Féin, all of our campaign team and the media for their excellent coverage leading up to the election campaign and giving candidates the opportunity to talk about the issues, that’s what elections are about.

“So obviously I’m very pleased that we have won the seat, but my mind now is on Conor.” 

Cllr McGuinness received 5,791 first preference votes, and will likely be in a close battle with Independent Matt Shanahan to grab the final seat, with John Cummins and Mary Butler receiving strong votes in count one.

“It will be a long evening of watching all of the transfers but we’re hopeful” Deputy Cullinane said.

“I think he has a great chance, he’s about 400 first preference votes ahead of Matt Shanahan at the moment, I have a surplus of about 1,200 votes and we’re hoping that a lot of those will come Conor’s way and put him very much in contention for that last seat.

"But it is going to be very close, we know that, and I think Matt Shanahan’s campaign know it too, but nobody can predict it, we’ll have to wait and see where all the transfers go.

“We’ll know in a couple of hours but we’re in the hunt which is a great place to be considering where we were 20 years ago as a party.”