Laois General Election vote count restarts with two seats to fill
Just five left in the race with Brian Staney and Sean Fleming set to retain seats
The Laois General Election count looks set to be on the home straight with staff are back counting votes after an overnight adjournment.
Rory Hanniffy, Return Officer, got proceedings underway at 9 am when he directed the distribution of Elain Mullally's votes after she was eliminated after the sixth count with 2,959 votes.
Fine Gael's Willie Aird was deemed elected on Saturday on the fifth count when he exceeded the quota by 9,619 votes. The first-time candidate, who was a councillor for 45 years, is the only candidate returned.
The remaining candidates in the race are Seán Fleming of Fianna Fáil, Brian Stanley, independent, Maria McCormack, Sinn Féin and Aisling Moran, independent. Just three seats are up for grabs.
Mr Fleming leads the way in the hunt to retain a seat in the Dáil which he has held since 1997. Brian Stanley looks set to squeeze out his former Sinn Féin colleague Maria McCormack who is running for the first time.
The total electorate in the new Laois constituency is 65,873. The total valid poll is 38,507 and there were 231 spoiled votes leaving a valid poll of 38, 276 and a quota of 9,570.
The count is taking place in the Nano Nagle Hall at the St Mary's CBS / Scoil Chriost Ri Hall in Portlaoise.