COUNTING WILL begin this morning for the 43 seats for five vocational panels for the 24th Seanad, with counting for the six university panel seats starting tomorrow.
The poll for the five panels was to close at 11 this morning, with the boxes being opened immediately afterwards in the Members’ Restaurant in Leinster House.
According to an Oireachtas spokesman, the preliminary checks – including declarations of identity of voters (Oireachtas members and county and city councillors) – will take two to three hours with the first count beginning at 2pm.
The final results for the five panels – Cultural and Educational, Agricultural, Labour, Industrial and Commercial, and Administrative – should be known by tomorrow night.
The counts can be followed live at seanadcount.ie, on Twitter at @oireachtasnews and on Facebook at facebook.com/OireachtasNews.
Counting for the three National University of Ireland and three Dublin University (TCD) seats will begin tomorrow morning. Votes are cast by post by registered graduates of both universities with eligible postal votes being received up until 11am tomorrow.
Some candidates advised their supporters to make sure they had posted their votes by last Thursday because of Easter.
A small number have indicated that votes posted today (particularly in Dublin) may be received on time. The results for the panels should be known by Thursday evening.
The remaining 11 seats in the 60-seat Upper House are reserved for senators nominated by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. It is expected he will name the Taoiseach’s panel early next month.
These Seanad elections have attracted more attention than previously because of a number of controversies. As both Government parties have indicated they intend to hold a referendum to abolish the Upper House during the Coalition’s term of office, it could be the last Seanad election.
The campaign has also been marked by a row within Fianna Fáil over entitlement to run. Party leader Micheál Martin selected a panel of 10 preferred candidates to help the party rebuild its representative base. However, the majority of its outgoing Senators have refused to stand aside and are also running. With so many candidates, it is felt that Fianna Fáil may end up with less than the 10-12 seats it could expect to win with effective vote management.
The other contentious issue has been criticism of the register in both university panels, with candidates complaining that it is out of date, that graduates have been deregistered unknown to them and that the process for registering is cumbersome.
