Elections in Ireland - Definition and Overview

This article is part of the series Politics of the R. of Ireland

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Elections in the Republic of Ireland gives information on election and election results in the Republic of Ireland. An election is a process in which a vote is held to elect candidates to an office. It is the mechanism by which a democracy fills elective offices in the legislature, and sometimes the executive and judiciary, and in which electorates choose local government officials.

See election for a more comprehensive discussion and the List of democracy and elections-related topics for an overview on related topics.

The Republic of Ireland elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a seven year term by the people(see below). Parliament or Oireachtas has two chambers. The House of Representatives or Dáil Éireann has 166 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation (single transferable vote) in multi-seat constituencies. The Senate or Seanad Éireann has 60 members, 11 members nominated, 6 members selected by the universities and 43 members elected from five vocational panels, all in short time after the parliamentary elections. The Republic of Ireland has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties , with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party.

General elections

Election results since 1923

Election results since 1937

Presidential elections

Main article: Irish presidential election

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 Alternative Vote. While both Irish and UK citizens resident in the state may vote in elections to Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), 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 (national parliament).
• Four local authorities.
• Themselves (in the case of an incumbent or former president).

Where only one candidate is nominated, he or she is deemed elected without the need for a ballot. For this reason, where there is a consensus among political parties, the President may be 'elected' without the occurrence of an actual ballot. No one may serve as President for more than two terms.

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Governments of Ireland
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• Irish Election Results
• Irish (UK) general election, 1918 - last all-Ireland general election

External links

• Electionworld (http://www.electionworld.org/ireland.htm)
• Adam Carr's Election Archive (http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/i/ireland/)
• parties and elections (http://www.parties-and-elections.de/ireland.html)

External link

• President of Ireland - official site (http://www.gov.ie/aras/)