The Labour Party has retained its seat in the Dublin South Central by-election. However, the turnout of voters was the lowest in the history of the State, with fewer than three in ten people casting their votes. Labour's Mary Upton took the seat formerly held by her brother, the late Pat Upton. Ms Upton said she was dedicating her victory to the memory of her brother.
In the Dublin South Central constituency, the total electorate is 72,155. However, the number of people who voted in the by-election yesterday was 20,333. This means the turnout was just 28.1%.
In the end it was a comfortable victory for Mary Upton, who won the seat on the 8th count with a final vote of 10,274. Despite the low turnout, all the main parties took some comfort in their performance. Fianna Fáil's Micahael Mulcahy polled 30%, Catherine Byrne of Fine Gael 20%. The Sinn Féin candidate Aengus O Snodaigh came next with almost 8.5%, and the Green Party candidate John Goodwillie polled almost 6.5%. For the Labour Party, this was the third by-election win out of four.
For details of the results visit our By-Election Special site.
