Independent Ireland's Noel Thomas is ahead of Fine Gael's Seán Kyne with counting to resume in the Galway West bye-election this morning.
Mr Thomas is almost 600 votes ahead of Mr Kyne, with the Labour Party's Helen Ogbu much further back in third place.
There is a long way to go in this count but the Fine Gael candidate is seen by some as the most likely winner, given that he stands to gain a large number of transfers once the Fianna Fáil candidate is eliminated.
View the full breakdown of the counts here
This would buck the trend of governments typically losing bye-elections.
With the two bye-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West, it has been a bruising weekend for Sinn Féin who failed to land a blow on Government.
Fianna Fáil too exit these electoral contests wounded as the Taoiseach promised that the party would reflect on the results.
Seventeen candidates were on the ballot paper in Galway West.
The Independent Ireland candidate topped the poll in the first count, receiving 10,007 first preference votes, ahead of Mr Kyne who received 9,647 votes.
Ms Ogbu came in third place in the first count with 5,462 votes, followed by Fianna Fáil's Cillian Keane on 4,192 votes.
Independent Mike Cubbarb took 3,396 votes, Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich of the Social Democrats received 3,354 first preference votes, while Sinn Féin's Mark Lohan received 3,208 votes.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Kyne said he was delighted to be "in with a shout" of reclaiming his Dáil seat.
Speaking during the day one of the count, Mr Thomas said: "My gut is telling me I'm stuck again in another tight election race."
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said she was proud of the campaign around Helen Ogbu.
It was a disappointing showing for Sinn Féin's candidate Mark Lohan, with the party leader Mary Lou McDonald saying it was "not our day, today in Galway West".
The Galway West count adjourned after 9pm last night and will resume at 9am this morning.
