Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty said she will 'give it her all' in Europe for the people of Dublin over the next five years.
The first count tonight for Dublin's four-seater European Parliament constituency shows Fianna Fáil's Barry Andrews on the highest number of votes at 62,147, followed by Senator Doherty on 61,344.
The position of a number of other high-profile candidates was also revealed as one candidate was eliminated.
Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan has 35,431 votes, Green Party candidate Ciarán Cuffe is at 32,204 while radio presenter Niall Boylan for Independent Ireland stands at 30,637.
Labour's Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has 30,733 votes on the first count and Clare Daly of the Independents 4 Change is on 26,855.
Brid Smith of People Before Profit is at 21,577 while Sinn Féin's other candidate Daithí Doolan has 10,766.
The quota to be elected is 75,345.
Candidate Conor Murphy has been excluded and his 1,065 votes are being distributed. The count has been adjourned until Monday morning.
Senator Doherty told Newstalk the first official result may still not be known tomorrow.
"We've had an enormous team that's run a great campaign over the last couple of months," she said.
"The talk here this evening is that there are five candidates in the mix for the last two seats.
"It will very much depend on where the transfers go tomorrow.
"So anything could happen tomorrow - and the returning officer did say this evening he doesn't expect anybody to be elected tomorrow, that it might be the following day.
"So we're in for probably a long couple of days of counting".
Speaking ahead of the first count results, Fianna Fáil's Barry Andrews believes his performance proves his party can increase its Dáil representation for Dublin in a general election.
"I think it's very positive for Fianna Fáil in Dublin; it shows that we can be competitive - particularly in four-seat constituencies," he said.
"Whereas we have seven TDs now in Dublin, it's not unreasonable to expect that we could increase that to 10 or maybe 11," he added.
Courting is also continuing in the local elections with almost 700 seats filled.