Counting staff have conducted initial tallies of the ballot papers and these confirm my predictions from the blog post yesterday.
Personally, I'm not in contention to win a place in the Dáil. The big positive outcome for my campaign is the increased interest in my blogs about the adverse impact of social control media and some of the other things that are going wrong at the intersection of technology and society. Unlike last time I ran for public office, it does not look like a finished last again.
Yesterday I commented on one of the minor candidates from the communist-trotskyist PBP. Many people were amused that I frustrated the campaign of a communist. Nonetheless, that was not my intention. My only intention was to demonstrate the hypocrisy of communists using social control media platforms that enrich billionaires in a foreign country. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see that the communist increased her share of the votes from three percent to four percent. At the same time, the Green party vote fell as they were running with a different candidate. In general, the left votes were divided and fighting against each other and none of them appear to be able win a seat. That is a loss for the left as one seat was previously held by the Greens.
Kate O'Connell previously served as a local representative for the party Fine Gael and this time she ran as an independent. The media showed a big interest in her campaign. Her previous status and her media profile haven't helped her attain the number of first preference votes required to be in contention for one of the four seats.
Nonetheless, Kate achieved about 4.5% of the vote and this demonstrates how much harder it was for other independents who have little or no public profile at all.
Many people have commented on my €17,000 electricity bill. This is the type of scandal that is so unusual that it would normally appear in a news report even if there was not an election in progress. The media have known about the bill for a week but chosen not to report on it. This adds to the perception of many people that the media has been very selective in reporting on the existing political parties and not providing any space for new candidates and the issues we raise.
One of the issues people raised with me during the campaign was the status of the Sandymount Baths. Despite Dublin's incredible shoreline, the Baths have been derelict for over 100 years. Coincidentally, many people comment that the same two parties have taken turns to govern Ireland over the same period of 100 years.
The only independent candidate who did get significant media attention for free is the high profile bank robber Gerry Hutch. He is in fourth position after the first tally and this means there is a real possibility that he will win a seat. He could miss out on the seat if the preference transfers from other candidates all work against him to help one of the candidates in fifth or sixth positions to rise up into the fourth position and displace him. If that happens, he may miss out on the seat by a very slim margin. It may come down to just one hundred votes. People who acquired Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch domain names may share some of the responsibility if he misses out on a seat by such a small margin.
The election created a huge interest in my blog posts about inconvenient truths in the days before voting. It is interesting to see that the heightened interest in my blog has continued in the time since the polls closed.
More news and policy statements regarding my campaign for Dublin Bay South:
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