Keena romps home with up to 60% increase in vote
A jubilant Cllr. Frankie Keena said that he was absolutely delighted and honoured to be re-elected to Westmeath County Council representing the Athlone area.
This was a very tight, competitive and intense campaign where eleven candidates were contesting for a seat within a six seat constituency area.
I was thrilled to have been placed in second place after securing 1182 first preference votes, an increase of nearly 60% from the 2004 elections, he proudly declared.
Really this was a massive vote particularly when the Fianna Fail party was loosing seats countrywide. While a proportion of these votes would be a personal vote I also attribute my success and increase in vote to not being afraid of hard work, and to getting involved and helping communities, he said.
It is hard to find the right words to thank all those people who voted for me and have faith in me to represent them for the next five years. All I can say is that I am extremely grateful and honoured and that I am always available to offer assistance and help to them with any matter, he added.
I also want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my campaign team, canvassers and in particular my wife and family for all their work, assistance and patience given to me during the campaign, said Cllr. Keena.
My first priority as a re-elected Councillor is to try and address the large number of queries that I received throughout the canvas. I then want to focus on larger issues such as getting better health services for Athlone, the next phase of the Garrycastle Bridge re-alignment and making Athlone more tourist friendly, etc., he said.
Unfortunately during any election, people are going to loose and I want to take this opportunity to commiserate with Cllrs. Kieran Molloy, John Butler, Egbert Moran, John Dolan and Mick O’Connell who lost their seats on either Local Authority and to thank them for their service and commitment given to their constituents over the last number of years, he concluded.
