Fíanna Fáil teetering on the brink

D_Tim McGnaw

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Tallies are now flooding in, and it looks like the primary party of government in Ireland for the last 75 years is about to take a total hammering in the election.

Not only has their vote collapsed, but the turn out was high (initially interpreted as favourable to FF) meaning that tens of thousands of people turned out to vote for any other party than FF.

Predictions that controversies between the prospective new coalition parties, Labour and Fine Gael, would reduce the Labour vote seem not to have come true as in some constituencies (contrary to the result in almost every other election in this country's history) especially 4 seat ones in Dublin, FG and Labour are taking 2 seats each and the FF is out in the cold.

Sinn Féin's vote is up, much to many people's chagrin. But their candidates don't tend to garner tranfers from other candidates, similarly FFers tend not to get transfers from people who vote for other parties ("transfer-toxic" is the phrase).

Fine Gael look as though they'll be the largest party in a coalition without any overall majority. 39% of voters exit polled said they would like to see Enda Kenny, FG's leader, as Taoiseach, which in our system is a very significant figure indeed. Only 21% said they would prefer Micheál Martin (FF's leader) as Taoiseach.


This looks like it will be a historic election, the extent to which FF has dominated this country for generations cannot be under estimated, so this kind of massive shift against them says much about the current state of the country and what its likely future will entail.


You can follow the results of the count and get the latest on Ireland's election here- Live - Election Count - RTÉ News
 
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dandelion

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the question though is what the winner might be able to do which is different to the last lot. Whoever wins now can look forward to an entire term of bad news whatever they do. Not a brilliant start for hopes of re-election.
 

D_Tim McGnaw

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the question though is what the winner might be able to do which is different to the last lot. Whoever wins now can look forward to an entire term of bad news whatever they do. Not a brilliant start for hopes of re-election.


Sure things will be tough for the next few years, possibly longer, but even FFers say they think the scale of their defeat implies that it will take at least one other election before they get back anything like their former representation in the Daíl. Besides whoever is in government for the next few years can blame most of the bad news on FF, and probably do so with some credibility.
 
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Not tittering on the brink this time (as in Gaddafi thread)? :D

Good luck btw - don't fully understand Irish politics, but all the best for the next term. :)
 

D_Tim McGnaw

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Not tittering on the brink this time (as in Gaddafi thread)? :D

Good luck btw - don't fully understand Irish politics, but all the best for the next term. :)


Did you ever see this post I made a few months ago Joll - http://www.lpsg.org/2763018-post60.html just some background to Irish politics you may find interesting.


The voting system is complicated though so I wont go into the ins and outs of that :tongue:
 

vince

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Not tittering on the brink this time (as in Gaddafi thread)? :D

Good luck btw - don't fully understand Irish politics, but all the best for the next term. :)
I'm not fixing the title of that thread no matter how many times you bring it up Joll! :wink: