Cummins lauds 'very strong' tally performance
John Cummins at the count centre in SETU for the 2024 General Election results. Photo by Hugh Dooley.
Fine Gael candidate John Cummins said the tallies in Waterford look “very strong” but refused to celebrate until he received an official count. The final tallies indicate that Senator Cummins has received 10,203 first preference votes, in touching distance of the expected quota of roughly 10,750 votes.
“Obviously we don’t have an official first count so I’ll be a lot happier when I see that, but the tallies look very strong. We look to be at about 19% which is an increase from 16.5% in 2020. It would be quite a strong showing, and it’s a trend we see right across the entire country.”
“I think that’s down to the hard work over the last 5 years, not just the last 5 weeks. In my offices in Dungarvan and Waterford City, Lauren, Branden and Jennifer work so hard to represent the people as they come into the offices, and our fantastic team of 8 councillors across the entire county do too.”
The Senator said “It was always the right strategy for this election” to refrain from running two candidates in Waterford as the party did in 2020. “Certainly at this moment in time it looks like it was the correct strategy!”
“While running two candidates will maximise the first preference votes, you then aren’t guaranteed the transfers between the candidates, that’s what happened in 2020,” the Senator explained.
“I am so thankful for all my team, everybody that has helped to canvass and campaign, whether its dropping in posters, making phone calls or sending text messages. Everything has come together for this, what appears to be a positive result for us.”
