Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0183/01836.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 24KB | 459 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01836}
$Pretitle{423}
$Title{Ireland
Political Parties and Elections}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC}
$Subject{party
government
state
dail
department
ireland
responsible
election
vote
european}
$Date{1990}
$Log{Table 3.*0183601.tab
Table 4.*0183602.tab
Table 5.*0183603.tab
}
Country:     Ireland
Book:        Facts About Ireland. 1990
Author:      Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Political Parties and Elections

     In Ireland citizens have the opportunity to take part in the political
process by casting a vote in four decision making procedures:

     (1) the election of the President every seven years;

     (2) referendums on proposed constitutional amendments;

     (3) elections to local authorities, usually every five years;

     (4) parliamentary elections which occur under present legislation at
least every five years.

     The electoral system used in general elections to the Dail is
proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote in
multimember constituencies. It is also used for the election of 49 of the 60
members of the Seanad, members of the local authorities, and of the President.

Dail Elections

     Every citizen who has reached the age of twenty-one years is eligible for
membership of the Dail and every citizen over the age of eighteen years has
the right to vote at Dail. Voting is by secret ballot: postal voting is
confined to members of the police and defence forces. The somewhat complex
proportional representation system of voting used can be described as follows:

     The voter marks his paper by placing the figure `1' opposite the name of
the candidate of his first choice. He may then place the figure `2' opposite
the name of his second choice and so on.

     Under the single transferable vote system the elector is in effect
telling the returning officer `I wish to vote for A, but if he does not need
my vote or if he has no chance of being elected, transfer my vote to B; if B
in turn does not need my vote or if he in turn has no chance of election,
transfer my vote to C'. At the opening of the count the ballot papers are
mixed together and sorted according to the first preferences recorded for the
candidates. The total number of valid papers is then found, and from that
figure the quota is calculated according to the formula:

Total valid votes & 1
------------
number of seats & 1

     Thus, if there were 40,000 votes and 4 seats to be filled, the quota
would be 8,001 and only four candidates could reach the quota. The quota,
then, is the smallest number necessary to guarantee the election of a
candidate.

     If, on the first count, no candidate has reached the quota, the candidate
who received the lowest number of votes is eliminated and his votes are
transferred to the candidate for whom a second preference is recorded. If a
candidate receives more than the quota required for election, his surplus
votes, chosen at random from his total vote, are transferred to the remaining
candidates in accordance with the subsequent preferences expressed by the
electors.

     When the number of remaining candidates neither elected nor eliminated
equals the number of vacancies to be filled, those candidates are declared
elected although they may not have reached the quota.

Seanad Elections

     A general election for the Seanad takes place not later than ninety days
after a dissolution of Dail Eireann. The first meeting of the new Seanad
takes place on a day fixed by the President on the advice of the Taoiseach.
The Minister for the Environment issues orders within seven days of the
dissolution of the Dail, setting out the dates and times of the elections of
the panels and university members.

     The electorate for the forty-three members of the Seanad elected from
panels of candidates numbers less than 800 individuals and consists of the
members of the newly elected Dail, the members of the outgoing Seanad and the
members of every council of a county or county borough. There is a separate
election for each of the five panels. The electorate for the six members
elected from the Universities consists of every citizen who has received a
degree (other than an honorary one) from those universities and has attained
the age of twenty-one years and is registered as an elector. Every election of
the Seanad is held on the system of proportional representation and by secret
postal ballot.

Political Parties

     Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour have been continuously represented in
the Dail since 1922. The other main parties represented in the Dail are the
Worker's Party and the Progressive Democrats.

     Fianna Fail, the Republican Party, was founded by Eamon De Valera in
1926. Its aims are to secure the unity and independence of Ireland as a
republic, to restore the Irish language and to develop a distinctive national
life in accordance with Irish traditions and ideals, and to make the resources
and wealth of Ireland subservient to the needs and welfare of all the people
of Ireland. Its policy also includes the provision of employment for the
maximum number of people and the defence of Irish neutrality.

     Fianna Fail, was in Government in 1932-1948, 1951-1954, 1957-1973,
1977-1981 and in 1982 and from 1987 to date. Its leaders have been Eamon De
Valera, 1926-1959, Sean Lemass, 1959-1966, Jack Lynch, 1966-1979 and Charles
Haughey from 1979 to date. Its achievements have included the consolidation of
Irish independence, especially the recovery of the ports (retained by Britain
under the treaty of 1921), promulgation of the present Constitution in 1937,
maintenance of Irish neutrality in the Second World War, construction of a
domestic industrial base, redistribution of agricultural land, introduction of
housing and social assistance programmes, the opening up of Ireland to trade
and investment, negotiating entry into the EEC, and the attraction of high
technology industry and financial services to Ireland.

     Fianna Fail is a broadly based, populist party with strong
representation in both urban and rural Ireland. Since 1932 it has been the
largest party in the Dail and at the election in June 1989 won 44% of the
popular vote. Together with the French Gaullists it is part of the European
Democratic Alliance in the European Parliament.

     Fine Gael won over 29% of the total votes cast in the general election of
June 1989. The party holds 55 out of the 166 seats in Dail Eireann, and is the
largest Opposition party. The leader of Fine Gael is Alan M Dukes.

     Fine Gael was founded in 1933 by the coming together of a number of
parties. The predominant party in this amalgamation was Cumann na nGaedheal.
Cumann na nGaedheal had been founded in 1923 to sustain the government of the
infant Free State in its efforts to build and develop the new nation on the
basis of the treaty negotiated a few months earlier. The Cumann na nGaedheal
party governed from the foundation of the Irish State until 1932. Fine Gael
has committed itself to an ideal which was shared by Cumann na nGaedheal of
developing a wider, pluralistic sense of Irish nationalism.

     Fine Gael policy is based on the principles of the encouragement of
enterprise combined with social, justice and with decision-making devolved to
the appropriate level, as well as on the ideal of reconciliation with the
people of Northern Ireland. Fine Gael favours a planned approach to encourage
expansion to counteract the effect of world recession. This is to be be done
by a mixture of State encouragement for private enterprise and effort and
direct state involvement. It has as its immediate objectives improved access
for young people and women to decision-making, greater tax equity, fairer
opportunities in education and the maintenance or improvement of social
welfare provisions.

     Fine Gael is also committed to the development and uni