Yes it's the moment everybody's being waiting for, the 31st Dáil has been dissolved (last Wednesday in fact), and the election has been set for 26th February next. The Irish electorate will have their say over which brand of gombeen get's to run the country for possibly the next five years.
Your humble poster is going to be a polling clerk on the day, which essentially means that I get to sit around a drafty room for 13 hours handing out ballots to anybody who presents themselves and is eligible to vote at my booth. Oh, I also get to vote ten minutes before polls open (because there is always at least one person outside the station waiting to vote from half six, fair play to them). In preparation I've bought myself two new books
Now the Dáil is the lower of the two houses the Oireachtas (i.e. the House of Commons equivalent), and exists with the Seanad (Lords). The Dáil contains all the power, and is the only House being voted for (there are Seanad elections, but the only thing harder to understand than Seanad elections is the purpose of that chamber) on the day. Elections take place on a PR basis, with a single transferrable vote being cast by each elector for candidates running in a multi-seat constituency (three four or five seats depending on size of the constituency's electorate).
Thus candidates are deemed elected once they exceed the quota, which is set at the number of votes cast, divided by the number of seats being contested plus 1. If a candidate (or candidates) is deemed to be elected on the first count, their excess is divided proportional to the total number of second preferences (of all his votes) given amongst the remaining candidates (so if we've three candidates for two posts, and Candidate A gets the quota +1,000 votes, and his number twos are divided 60/40 between B and C, B gets 600 of the excess and C gets 400). After this step (if it needs to be taken), the person(s) with the least votes are eliminated and their votes divvied up proportionally as above, until the next person exceeds the quota, whereby their excess is distributed, and so on until either all seats are filled by persons having deemed to have exceeded the quota or there are only two left standing who haven't exceeded the quota whereby the person with the most votes gets the last seat. One seat is not contested, that of the Ceann Comhairle (head of the council, i.e the chairperson or Speaker), whose seat is constitutionally protected, unless of course the Ceann Comhairle is retiring from the Dáil whereby their seat is now open.
Eligible electors consist of Irish citizens over the age of 18 who have registered to vote, and who have lived in the country in the past three years (exceptions include diplomatic or other state employees on permanent station in foreign countries), and UK nationals who have lived in the country continuously for the last 12 months who have registered to vote (an arrangement since the founding of the state, and reciprocated for Irish citizens living in the UK). Citizens of other nations need not apply to vote (though they can vote in European elections if EU citizens, or local elections if they have right of residence).
To be eligible to run for election you need to be an Irish citizen and over the age of 21 (and not a member of the European Commission, Judge, Advocate General or Registrar of the Court of Justice of EU, member of the Court of Auditors of the EC, member of An Garda Siochána {a Peeler}, civil servant {unless expressly allowed to by contract, for example, I as a Clerical Officer can run for local but not national office}, of unsound mind, not currently in prison for a sentence >6 months and not currently an undischarged bankrupt).
There are 40 constituencies this time, with a total number of seats set at 158. I got the following map from the Irish Political Maps blog (which is a pretty good resource, run by somebody I've never met nor interacted with):
.
Tomorrow I'll look at the contending parties (and independents). Hopefully this wall of text isn't too offputting, there'll be more pictures tomorrow.
Your humble poster is going to be a polling clerk on the day, which essentially means that I get to sit around a drafty room for 13 hours handing out ballots to anybody who presents themselves and is eligible to vote at my booth. Oh, I also get to vote ten minutes before polls open (because there is always at least one person outside the station waiting to vote from half six, fair play to them). In preparation I've bought myself two new books
Now the Dáil is the lower of the two houses the Oireachtas (i.e. the House of Commons equivalent), and exists with the Seanad (Lords). The Dáil contains all the power, and is the only House being voted for (there are Seanad elections, but the only thing harder to understand than Seanad elections is the purpose of that chamber) on the day. Elections take place on a PR basis, with a single transferrable vote being cast by each elector for candidates running in a multi-seat constituency (three four or five seats depending on size of the constituency's electorate).
Thus candidates are deemed elected once they exceed the quota, which is set at the number of votes cast, divided by the number of seats being contested plus 1. If a candidate (or candidates) is deemed to be elected on the first count, their excess is divided proportional to the total number of second preferences (of all his votes) given amongst the remaining candidates (so if we've three candidates for two posts, and Candidate A gets the quota +1,000 votes, and his number twos are divided 60/40 between B and C, B gets 600 of the excess and C gets 400). After this step (if it needs to be taken), the person(s) with the least votes are eliminated and their votes divvied up proportionally as above, until the next person exceeds the quota, whereby their excess is distributed, and so on until either all seats are filled by persons having deemed to have exceeded the quota or there are only two left standing who haven't exceeded the quota whereby the person with the most votes gets the last seat. One seat is not contested, that of the Ceann Comhairle (head of the council, i.e the chairperson or Speaker), whose seat is constitutionally protected, unless of course the Ceann Comhairle is retiring from the Dáil whereby their seat is now open.
Eligible electors consist of Irish citizens over the age of 18 who have registered to vote, and who have lived in the country in the past three years (exceptions include diplomatic or other state employees on permanent station in foreign countries), and UK nationals who have lived in the country continuously for the last 12 months who have registered to vote (an arrangement since the founding of the state, and reciprocated for Irish citizens living in the UK). Citizens of other nations need not apply to vote (though they can vote in European elections if EU citizens, or local elections if they have right of residence).
To be eligible to run for election you need to be an Irish citizen and over the age of 21 (and not a member of the European Commission, Judge, Advocate General or Registrar of the Court of Justice of EU, member of the Court of Auditors of the EC, member of An Garda Siochána {a Peeler}, civil servant {unless expressly allowed to by contract, for example, I as a Clerical Officer can run for local but not national office}, of unsound mind, not currently in prison for a sentence >6 months and not currently an undischarged bankrupt).
There are 40 constituencies this time, with a total number of seats set at 158. I got the following map from the Irish Political Maps blog (which is a pretty good resource, run by somebody I've never met nor interacted with):
.
Tomorrow I'll look at the contending parties (and independents). Hopefully this wall of text isn't too offputting, there'll be more pictures tomorrow.
Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli
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