A date has been set for a new count of almost 15,000 votes cast in the May 2014 Listowel municipal area local elections.

It is the first time in the history of the State such a count has been ordered.

The count afresh, as it is called, will now take place on February 10th at the John Mitchels GAA clubhouse, the venue of the original count.

Kerry County Council officials Charlie O'Sullivan and Martin O'Donoghue have been appointed returning officer and deputy returning officer.

Each of the original 15 candidates is to be allowed seven passes for scrutineers and others. The new count was ordered earlier this week by Judge Thomas O'Donnell at the Circuit Civil Court in Tralee following a Supreme Court Decision in December in a case taken by a defeated candidate, former Fianna Fáil senator Dan Kiely, against Kerry County Council. Mr Kiely (75), who ran as an Independent, lost by two votes.

A handful of votes separated three candidates – Mr Kiely, a Fine Gael councillor and a Fianna Fáil councillor in the final count.

The Supreme Court ordered that votes beginning with sequences other than one be excluded, and an entirely new count take place.

Seven seats are to be decided. The count is expected to take two days.