Mr Larkin, who previously ran as an independent, has been on Galway City Council since 2014 and served as mayor from 2016 to 2017.
Boxes began to be sorted at Leisureland in Salthill at 9am on Saturday morning before being moved to Westside Community Centre for the official count.
Early tallies showed Mr Larkin trailing well behind on around 3pc with two-thirds of boxes opened.
Out in front was Fianna Fáil councillor Alan Cheevers around 15pc, followed by the ever-popular Terry O’Flaherty, the ex-Progressive Democrat independent who has been a mainstay since 1999.
Declan McDonnell (10pc), another ex-Progressive Democrat independent, looks set to retain a seat he has held since 1991 while Mr Cheevers’ party colleague Michael J Crowe could also be safe with tallies placing him just behind at 9pc.
Three newcomers, Shane Forde (Fine Gael), Helen Ogbu (Labour) and Aisling Burke (Sinn Féin) are neck-and-neck on 8pc each, meaning there could be a tight race on the cards to pick up a seat.
After a poor day out in 2019, Sinn Féin lost three seats in Galway city and have no sitting councillors here. Fine Gael have three seats but none in East currently, while Labour will be looking to build on the one seat they won five years ago.
At least one seat is up for grabs in East – the Social Democrats’ Alan Curran, co-opted to a seat there following the resignation of Owen Hanley, is running in West this time out. A native of Salthill, Mr Curran is a secondary school teacher in the area at St Enda’s.
There could be two seats in play should Mr Larkin fail to claw back the early deficit indicated by the tallies.
With ballots for East sorted first, they will be first to arrive at Westside Community Centre for the start of the official count around 1pm, with Central to follow, and finally West.
Sorting of Central ballots is around an hour ahead of schedule compared to 2019 I’m told, meaning things could move more swiftly this time around – no harm in that after three recounts, two in Central and one in East, were held five years ago.
