Ireland’s electoral system is one that is relatively familiar to Australians, but quite unusual around the world, using a system similar to Hare-Clark, used in Tasmania and the ACT.
The lower house of the Irish Parliament, the Dáil Éireann, has existed in various forms for over 90 years. The original Dáil was elected by single-member districts. It was created following the 1918 UK election, when most Irish seats were won by Sinn Fein. Those MPs refused to sit in the UK Parliament, and convened as the Dáil Éireann in Dublin.
Following the Irish War of Independence, Irish home rule was instituted in 1922, with the Dáil Éireann elected by the single transferable vote electoral system. This system has continued until today.
The modern Dáil Éireann is elected from 43 constituencies, electing a total of 166 Teachta Dála, or TDs. Each constituency elects between three and five TDs.
Elections are conducted by Single Transferable Vote, which is basically the system of proportional representation used in Australia for the Senate, the ACT, Tasmania, and all other state upper houses.
The key differences are slight but significant. There is no above-the-line voting in Ireland, and while candidates are almost always aligned with a party, they aren’t divided into separate parties on the ballot. Parties don’t necessarily run as many candidates as there are seats: indeed parties usually run only as many as they think can be elected in that constituency.
The system does tend to produce coalition governments and hung parliaments like any other proportional system, but unlike those in mainland Europe, it isn’t precisely proportional. With only 3-5 members per district the quota lies at between 16.7% and 25%, meaning most seats are won by major parties, with a bias against smaller parties.
In 2007, Fianna Fail won 77 seats, with 41.6% of the vote. Fine Gael won 51 seats, with 27.3% of the vote. Labour won 20 seats with 10.1% of the vote. The Green Party won 6 seats with 4.7% of the vote. Sinn Fein won 4 seats with 6.9% of the vote. The Progressive Democrats won two seats with 2.7%.
Are the votes counted on election night or the following day?
Votes are counted the following day, with ballot boxes being brought from polling stations to a central location for each constituency overnight.
The verification of votes begins the following morning at 9am (8pm Sydney time), with the votes from each ballot box being checked. At this point, party workers – referred to as tallymen – unofficially tabulate first preferences for each ballot box, with overall estimates of first preferences usually being available by 1pm on the day of the count.
Actual first count results tend to start coming in at around 3-4pm, with some of the larger rural constituencies (Cavan-Monaghan, Laois-Offaly) often not declaring first counts until late evening.
Thanks
People might be interested in this piece on the London Review of Books blogsite by political scientist Peter Mair:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/02/23/peter-mair/smithwicks-or-guinness/
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