Today (November 29th) citizens of the Republic of Ireland go to polls to vote in parliamentary elections!
Irish parliament (Oireachtas) is bicameral and includes two houses, upper Seanad Éireann (Senate), which isn’t directly elected, and lower Dáil Éireann, which 34th term of will be decided today.
Dáil, after revisions made last year, consists of 174 members (88 needed for majority), called Teachtaí Dála (TDs), who are elected for a five-year term, directly in 43 multi-member (3 to 5) constituencies (Dáilcheantair), by proportional representation single transferable vote. Speaker of the house (Ceann Comhairle) is to be returned automatically. Read more here.
Turnout in last (Feb 2020) elections was 62.9%.
Relevant parties and alliances taking part in the elections are:
| Name | Leader | Position | Affiliation | 2020 result | Recent polling | Exit poll | Seats (change) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fianna Fáil (FF) | Micheál Martin | centre-right (liberal conservative) | Renew | 22.2% | 20-21% | TBA | (38) |
| Fine Gael (FG) | Simon Harris | centre-right (liberal conservative) | EPP | 20.9% | 19-23% | TBA | (35) |
| Sinn Féin (SF) | Mary Lou McDonald | left (demsoc) | GUE/NGL | 24.5% | 18-20% | TBA | (37) |
| Social Democrats (SD) | Holly Cairns | centre-left (socdem, Nordic model) | – | 2.9% | 5-6% | TBA | (6) |
| Labour Party | Ivana Bacik | centre-left (socdem) | PAS | 4.4% | 4% | TBA | (6) |
| Green Party (GP) | Roderic O’Gorman | centre-left (green) | Greens-EFA | 7.1% | 3-4% | TBA | (12) |
| Aontú | Peadar Tóibín | right-wing (social conservative) | – | 1.9% | 2-5% | TBA | (1) |
| Independent Ireland | Michael Collins | right-wing (conservative) | Renew | new | 4% | TBA | (-) |
| People Before Profit–Solidarity (PBP-S) | collective | left-wing (trotskyist) | – | 2.6% | 2-3% | TBA | (5) |
Further reading
The basics: A quick guide to Election (Raidió Teilifís Éireann)
Ireland votes in snap general election (DW)
Voters to take to the polls in Irish general election (BBC)
We shall leave detailed commentary (and any interesting trivia!) on elections and campaign, to our Irish users, or anyone else with worthy knowledge. Feel free to correct or add anything!
by pothkan
5 comments
Was about to post „inb4 a surprise far right victory no one saw coming” but reading the overview it doesnt seem Ireland has any actual far right patries? Lucky you
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly0k2medwmo
The BBC have a simple outline of the election.
The STV system in Ireland tend to elect a fairly even spread of TD’s, and In recent years forced coalitions. This results in a fairly centrist political policy which leans traditional.
For the last two cycles the 2 major Parties Finna Fail and Fine Gael have entered into agreement to govern.
This has made their policies very similar and allowed for Sine Fein to develop and expand their support base (centre left) and pose a takeover threat.
However polls suggest support for the 3 parties appears level so things get sticky.
This means smaller parties (further left and right) will seek to form government and get their policies heard.
We also usually have a large contingent of independent members who act for like local representatives and seek support for local issues. These will tend to offer support to government for gifts to their area.
Independent Ireland are pro peat harvesting. One of its TDs happens to own a peat harvesting business. It’s leader is a publican/farmer/undertaker. Mainly old men candidates raging against the EU restrictions on farmers and the nonsense of climate change. It’s trying to copy other European Rural/Farmer party movements and tap into the distrust of the city types.
A reminder that this is effectively just Day 1 of 3 – yes, we’ll get an exit poll at 10pm (11pm CET) when polls close, but counting begins at 9am on Saturday and generally continues for 48 hours, as a brief, pilot experiment with e-voting in 2002 backfired to the extent that it was decided never to consider it again.
Just to remind people that polling and first preference vote count does not determine seats entirely, and transferable votes can allow parties to leapfrog other ones for last the 2 seats in a constituency, especially when you have parties which poll well but do not get transfers.
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