2014_Waterford_City_and_County_Council_election
2014 Waterford City and County Council election
Part of the 2014 Irish local elections
An election to all 32 seats on Waterford City and County Council took place on 23 May 2014 as part of the 2014 Irish local elections. The City and County of Waterford was divided into five local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). This was a new local authority formed as a successor to both Waterford City Council (15 seats at the 2009 election) and Waterford County Council (23 seats at the 2009 election). The town councils of Dungarvan, Lismore and Tramore were also abolished.
Although it was behind Fine Gael in first preference vote share, Fianna Fáil emerged as the joint largest party on the council after the elections winning 8 seats in all. The party secured 3 seats in Comeragh, 2 in Dungarvan–Lismore and 1 in each of the Waterford city LEAs where the party had been traditionally weak after 2004 and 2009. Fine Gael's best result was in Dungarvan-Lismore where the party returned 3 seats. As the results indicate several of the party's sitting councillors lost their seats across the City and County. It was also a poor election for Labour who were reduced to just 1 seat on the new council and no city representation. The Workers' Party lost its sole seat; the first time since 1974 where it had no representation in Waterford local politics. Sinn Féin had a very successful election increasing their numbers to 6 across the City and County and winning a seat in each LEA. Independents secured the remaining 9 seats.[1]
