Elections in the Republic of Ireland

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In Ireland, direct elections by universal suffrage are used for the President, the ceremonial head of state; for Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas or parliament; for the European Parliament; and for local government. All elections use the proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) in constituencies returning three or more members, except that the presidential election and by-elections use the single-winner analogue of STV, elsewhere called instant-runoff voting or the alternative vote. Members of Seanad Éireann, the second house of the Oireachtas, are partly nominated, partly indirectly elected, and partly elected by graduates of particular universities.

Coalition governments have been the norm since 1989. Fine Gael (or its predecessor Cumann na nGaedheal) or Fianna Fáil have led every government since independence in 1922. Traditionally, Labour Party was the third party, although since 2016 it has been surpassed by Sinn Féin. Smaller parties and independents exist in the Dáil and more so in local government. At present, there are three Independent government ministers.

Eligibility to vote

Residents of the state who are Irish citizens or British citizens may vote in elections to the national parliament. Residents who are citizens of any EU state may vote in European Parliament elections, while any resident, regardless of citizenship, may vote in local elections.^[1]

The rights of Irish citizens living outside Ireland to vote are heavily restricted. Only members of the armed forces and diplomatic staff abroad may vote in Dáil elections, while only expatriates who are graduates of the National University of Ireland or Trinity College, Dublin may vote in Seanad elections to the university constituencies. However, in March 2017, the Taoiseach announced that a referendum would be held to amend the Constitution to allow expatriate Irish citizens to vote in presidential elections.^[2]

Entitlement to vote is based on citizenship:

Resident citizens	Local elections	European elections	Dáil Elections	Presidential elections	Referendums
Irish citizens
British citizens
EU citizens
Non-EU citizens

Early voting

Military personnel, whether serving at home or abroad, vote by postal ballot. These votes are delivered by a courier service, usually a commercial one, but a military courier is used for ballots cast by Irish troops in Lebanon and Syria.^[3] Voters living on islands off the west coast in Galway, Mayo, and Donegal traditionally voted two or three days before polling day, but in 2014 the gap was narrowed, when they voted just one day beforehand.^[4]

General elections

Under the Constitution, the term of a Dáil is a maximum of seven years; statute law, currently the Electoral Act 1992, establishes a lower maximum of five years. Elections are by single transferable vote (STV), with each constituency returning between three and five deputies, each called a Teachta Dála or TD. Since 1981, constituencies have been redrawn by an independent Constituency Commission after each census.

European elections

Elections to the European Parliament are held simultaneously across Europe every five years. In Ireland, as for Dáil elections, STV is used in constituencies returning three to five members.

Local elections

Local elections are held on the same day as European elections. Local electoral areas (LEAs) return between six and ten councillors by STV. Until the Local Government Reform Act 2014, separate county councils and borough/town councils were elected in parallel. The 2014 act replaced borough and town councils with municipal district councils comprising the county councillors from the LEA coterminous with the district.

Some members of Údarás na Gaeltachta were directly elected by Gaeltacht residents between 1980 and 2012, since then all have been appointed by the government.^[6][7]

Presidential elections

The President of Ireland is formally elected by the citizens of Ireland once in every seven years, except in the event of premature vacancy, when an election must be held within sixty days. The President is directly elected by secret ballot under the system of the instant-runoff voting (although the Constitution describes it as the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote). While both Irish and British citizens resident in the state may vote in Dáil elections, only Irish citizens, who must be at least eighteen years of age, may vote in the election of the President. The presidency is open to all citizens of the state who are at least 35. A candidate must, however be nominated by one of the following:

• Twenty members of the Oireachtas (Dáil or Seanad).
• Four local authorities.
• Themselves (in the case of an incumbent or former president that has served only one term).

Where only one candidate is nominated, that candidate is declared elected without a ballot. No one may serve as President for more than two terms.

Referendums

The Constitution of Ireland recognises two types of referendums:

• On a proposed amendment to the Constitution, for which a referendum is always required, and the amendment is defeated by a majority of those voting;
• An "ordinary referendum", on a bill other than an amendment to the Constitution, for which a referendum is only required on petition of Oireachtas members, and the bill is defeated by a majority of those eligible to vote;

There have been 38 referendums for amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. There have been no ordinary referendums.

For a proposal to change the name of a place, a "plebiscite" is required of "ratepayers": that is, residents of the place and businesses paying rates for property there. Such a plebiscite is carried out by the local authority via a postal vote.^[8] In a County Cork town, Charleville was chosen in a 1989 four-option plebiscite ahead of Ráth Luirc, An Rath, and Rathgoggan.^[9][10] The Official Languages Act 2003 prevented the plebiscite provision applying to places in the Gaeltacht, and so a 2005 plebiscite to change the name of Dingle, County Kerry was ruled invalid; in 2011 the 2003 act was amended to remove the anomaly.^[11] The 2011 amendment also changes the electorate from ratepayers to local government electors, but has not yet been commenced.^[12]

See also

• Voting system
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• Elections in Northern Ireland

References

External links

• Citizens Information: Elections and referenda
• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Parties and elections
• NSD: European Election Database – Ireland publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1992–2007