Updated: 16:50
Labour's Ivana Bacik is set to win the Dublin Bay South by-election.
Ballot boxes closed late Thursday night in the race to replace former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, with turnout higher than predicted.
The first count shows Senator Bacik topped the poll with over 30% of first preference votes, finishing comfortably ahead of Fine Gael's James Geoghegan.
First Count in DBS by-election
Ivana Bacik - 8,131 - 30.2%
James Geoghegan - 7,052 -26.2%
Lynn Boylan - 4,245 - 15.8%
Claire Byrne - 2,157 - 8%
Deirdre Conroy - 1,247 - 4.6%— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) July 9, 2021
It seems to be all over bar the counting at Dublin's RDS.
Her campaign manager, Duncan Smith, says historically it has been a good area for them.
"People do vote Labour in this constituency, and they vote Labour in every part of this constituency.
"So we'd a solid basis to build on - and when you've a candidate as excellent as Ivana Bacik with a track record as strong as Ivana Bacik".
The first count showed Fine Gael's James Geoghegan finishing on 26% - not far behind Senator Bacik, but he is expected to be less transfer friendly.
Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan was dominant in the inner-city but less so elsewhere - and will finish on a distant third with just under 16% of the vote.
The Green Party will be disappointed with Claire Byrne's performance, after the councillor won 8% of the first-preference vote.
However, the big loser of the day is Fianna Fáil.
The first count showed Deirdre Conroy finishing with less than 5% of the vote, down from 14% for local TD Jim O'Callaghan in the last general election.
Deputy O'Callaghan has described the result as "extremely disappointing".
Several candidates have been excluded in subsequent counts, although Senator Bacik still has some distance to go before reaching the quota of over 13,000 votes.
