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30-11-2024
DUBLIN: The polls are set to open for the Irish general election.
Polling stations will be open between 07:00 and 22:00 local time on Friday to allow voters to choose representatives to serve as Teachtai Dala (TDs) in the Dail, the lower house of the Oireachtas (Ireland’s parliament).
The next Dail, which will be the 34th, will have 174 TDs, up from 160 in 2020.
Friday’s vote comes after a three-week election campaign.
Voters will elect 173 TDs, one seat in the Dail goes to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker).
Eighty-eight TDs is the number required for an overall majority.
The new TDs will represent 43 constituencies throughout the Republic of Ireland.
More than 3.4 million people are registered to vote in the Republic of Ireland.
To vote in the election, voters must be over 18 years of age, be an Irish or British citizen, be resident in Ireland, and be listed on the Irish Electoral Register.
Election candidates include representatives from the three main parties – outgoing coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and the leading opposition party in the outgoing Dail, Sinn Fein.
These parties are joined by many smaller parties and a significant number of independent candidates.
The counting of votes begins on Saturday morning and is expected to continue over the weekend and possibly into the following week.
The first sitting of the 34th Dail is scheduled for Wednesday 18 December at 10:30.
A government will be officially formed when the Dail passes a vote to install a new taoiseach (Irish prime minister).
The Irish general election on Friday will decide who will sit in the Dail, the lower house of the Oireachtas (Ireland’s parliament).
Elected members are known as Teachtai Dala (TDs).
The number of TDs and constituencies will both increase for the 2024 election after a 2023 review.
There are now 43 Dáil constituencies (up from 39 in 2020) which will elect between three and five TDs each.
A total number of 174 TDs will be selected, up from 160 in 2020.
One seat in the Dail goes to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker), so 88 TDs is the number required for an overall majority.
More than 3.4 million people are registered to vote in the Republic of Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland elects its government using a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote.
Voters will have the opportunity to rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference, marking their favorite with a number one, a number two beside their next choice and so on. They can vote for as many or as few candidates as they like.
Candidates will have to reach a certain number of votes in order to be elected.
That number is decided for each constituency using a mathematical formula based on the number of seats available and the number of votes that have been cast.
Counting the ballots takes place in multiple rounds.
Each ballot is initially credited to the first choice.
Once a candidate receives the number of votes required, they are elected and any remaining ballots that are marked with them as first choice are transferred to the second ranked preferences.
Ballots continue to be transferred to the next usable preference until all of the seats in the constituency are filled with candidates who have reached the quota. (Int’l News Desk)
