An LGBT activist who was the youngest elected mayor in the country two years ago, has convincingly topped the polls in the Seanad Cultural and Educational Panel elections.

Sinn Féin's Fintan Warfield, who became the mayor of South Dublin at 22 in 2014, was elected to the Seanad on the first count and with 200 papers for 200,000 votes, he was safely above the 187,167 quota.

Speaking after his election, Warfield said that being elected in the same year as the Easter Rising, brings an added significance to the honour.

"I am immensely proud to have been elected to the Seanad and to have received such a large vote. To have been elected on the centenary of the Rising is a massive honour and privilege and I look forward to working with the rest of my colleagues in Leinster House to fight for the type of change promised in the Proclamation."

"As a young person involved in the arts and an LGBT activist, I will be a progressive voice on these issues in the Seanad. I hope that in the coming days I will be joined in the Seanad by an enlarged Sinn Féin team."

Warfield is a relation of Wolfe Tones musician Derek Warfield and has toured with the musician.

13 candidates remain in the election and is approaching the 11th count.