Witnessing the democratic process in action is worth the wait...almost

SATURDAY General Election counts, for the media, are all about the drama, seeing ambitions realised, dreams shattered, egos dented, catching unflattering victory shoulder lifts on camera and documenting the democratic process... and then there's the waiting.

Mostly, it's waiting.

In the home of the mighty Donaghmore Ashbourne and the Meath East count last weekend we put in a herculean shift of waiting, broken up by an odd ripple of count result excitement and... back to waiting again.

The waiting started as soon as the boxes opened on Saturday morning, yet that waiting was offset by panicked scrambles for Wifi, sockets, a table, a chair. Club and count staff helped sort us and soon Team Chronicle had the finest foldy chair and tressel table combo at which we could professionally wait and look busy over static laptops. Eyerolls and chats were exchanged with other members of the press pack; RTE, Newstalk, the Indo, the Times, all here for the waiting in south Meath.

We would, we agreed, do the waiting together and a tub of Cadbury Heroes was duly opened as a sort of ceremonial event to mark the start of the waiting.

The waiting, we were told, would go on until the late afternoon before the first count would be finalised. It was soon realised that such waiting would need more than funsize Twirls and Fudges (that nobody wanted), to sustain us.

The count carvery was located where the beef or salmon came with your own body weight of mash on the side and that, at least, proved very much worth the wait.

Then it was just desserts, back to the waiting down in the Donaghmore Ashborne club hall that would pass for an aircraft hanger.

The daylight that punctured the top windows with winter sunlight began to fade, replaced by a murky halflight from lamps high in the hall's curved roof. It created this subdued atmosphere for candidates and their supporters, documenting democracy in a cavernous gloom.

The waiting was finally interrupted by the sound of the very amiable Kevin Martin, the Returning Officer, who decided we had waited long enough and delivered the First Count at 7pm where he deemed Independent candidate Raymond Westlake would have to wait no longer. Eliminated.

The waiting then ended for some more candidates, Liberty Republic's Barbara Reid on the next count, followed by Carolyn Fahy (Animal Welfare Party), Charles Bobbett (Ind) Sivakumar Murudagoss (Ind) and Jean Murray (National Party). Thank you, you're wait is over.

For the rest of us, we went on... and on. And the waiting would spare no one, not even a Minister for Justice, who must have felt a lack of any, when it took four additional counts to find a 40 measly votes and end her wait to return to the 34th Dail.

Mr Martin, in his infinite wisdom after five counts then decided enough waiting had been done for the day and at 11.30pm, after 14 and half hours of waiting, ordered everyone out, the waiting could start again in the morning.

SUNDAY

There was some dangerous optimism in the Sunday air as Wispas (there were some Heroes left over) circulated that we could be finished by "mid afternoon". If that was the case, you could say it something of a wait off our minds.

That optimism lasted as long as the button-sized Dairy Milks in our tub of Heroes. Counts Six to Nine failed to elect anyone but sparked queries if there was a second sitting of the carvery.

At 5pm, Darren O'Rourke was, at last, elected with a healthy surplus which would be distributed along with the waiting. We distributed the last of the Heroes, except the Fudges.

Early hopes of escaping Ashbourne before darkness fell evaporated and that was before, wait for it, (we did), the Recheck!

Cllr Emer Toibin, seized upon a 16-vote gap between herself and Cllr Sharon Tolan after the 12th Count as reason enough to investigate the possibility of a recount.

Busy taking soundings over the phone while engaging with the Returning Officer's team, the recount route was rejected, a recheck of the previous count was granted.

A 90-minute recheck addition to the waiting was far more palatable than the notion of another two days recounting and eventually the 48-hour waitathon reached a crescendo as Kevin Martin took to the stage at 11.30pm.

Meath had returned its first Independent TD and she was naturally thrilled and excited by the challenge ahead. How will the Ratoath pharmacist perform on the big stage was the question we had been waiting to ask.

We'll have to wait and see.