{"id":19950,"date":"2024-12-01T04:21:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T04:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19950"},"modified":"2024-12-01T04:21:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T04:21:42","slug":"irish-election-too-close-to-call-says-taoiseach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19950","title":{"rendered":"Irish election 'too close to call', says taoiseach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris speaks to the media as he arrives at the election count centre in Wicklow<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has said it is “too close to call” how many seats his party will win in the Irish general election.<\/p>\n

Exit polls suggest a close contest between the three major parties.<\/p>\n

Figures show Sinn F\u00e9in slightly ahead of both Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il in first preference votes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris, Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin and Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald have been elected in Wicklow, Cork South Central and Dublin Central, respectively. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A record number of 174 Teachta\u00ed D\u00e1la (TDs) are set to be elected, up from 160 in 2020 following a constituency shake-up.<\/p>\n

There are now 43 D\u00e1il constituencies (up from 39 in 2020) which will elect between three and five TDs each.<\/p>\n

One seat in the D\u00e1il goes to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker), so 88 TDs is the number required for an overall majority.<\/p>\n

The counting of votes at more than 40 centres across the Republic began at 09:00 local time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Martin said the election will be “extraordinarily competitive”.<\/p>\n

“The good news for us in Fianna F\u00e1il is – notwithstanding that competition from multiple parties and independents – we are competitive in every single constituency,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Early tallies predicted that some government ministers may struggle to retain their seats. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in has polled well so far but less clear is how it will use that support to enter government.<\/p>\n

Judging by the early tallies Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael are best placed to return to the government benches and may between them end up with between 75 and 80 just short of the 88 needed to secure a majority.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael leader Harris said it will be a “tight” election. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve been saying for many weeks, in any Irish election it\u2019s quite straightforward to pick where the first or second or maybe even where the third seat might go in a constituency but trying to call the last or the second last seat is something that even Mystic Meg can struggle with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il have ruled out sharing power with Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That leaves McDonald contemplating other options including the possibility of a minority government with other left leaning parties and some independent TDs.<\/p>\n

McDonald told BBC News that there “isn\u2019t a straightforward pathway” to forming a government for any party, adding that it looks like a “close race” and insisted her party had received a “game changing and historic mandate”.<\/p>\n

She said she will do everything she can to explore “all the possibilities” for forming a government and that there “isn’t a straightforward path” for any party.<\/p>\n

Asked about plans for a referendum on Irish unity, she said: “We’re at a stage where we need to talk about preparation for a referendum on constitutional change” and that there is an “immediacy and urgency for that conversation to happen”. <\/p>\n

She also said “no Irish or British government can bury their head in the sand” over the issue.<\/p>\n

She also said she’s had many conversations with Sir Keir Starmer and that the Prime Minister is “well aware of my thinking”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Anti-establishment campaigning<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Sinn F\u00e9in president Mary Lou McDonald and deputy Michelle O’Neill arrive at the count at the RDS in Dublin<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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McDonald was elected in the third count in the Dublin Central constituency.<\/p>\n

There is speculation that some Sinn F\u00e9in votes have gone to independent candidate Gerry Hutch.<\/p>\n

The result raises questions into why Hutch’s anti-establishment campaigning played better with voters than Sinn Fein’s.<\/p>\n

Hutch, also known at The Monk, was cleared of murdering a man during a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, he was released on bail from custody in Spain.<\/p>\n

Hutch was one of nine people arrested in Spain as part of a joint international investigation between the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Guardia Civil into money laundering by the Hutch Organised Crime Group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How the votes will be counted<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The Republic of Ireland elects its government using a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference and candidates have to reach a certain number of votes in order to be elected.<\/p>\n

Counting the ballots takes place in multiple rounds.<\/p>\n

Each ballot is initially credited to the first choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Once all the seats are filled, the next phase of the process will begin, the task of forming a new government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When will the results be known?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Due to the voting system, counting can sometimes last multiple days, and forming a government can take even longer.<\/p>\n

It took four months after the last general election in 2020 before Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael, and the Green Party reached a deal to form a government.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in became the leading opposition party, and Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael have both already ruled them out as a potential coalition partner.<\/p>\n

The first meeting of the new D\u00e1il (lower house of parliament) is on 18 December but it is unlikely coalition negotiations will have finished by then.<\/p>\n

A government will be officially formed when the D\u00e1il passes a vote to install a new Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), but this isn’t expected to take place before 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PA Media Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris speaks to the media as he arrives at the election count centre in Wicklow Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has said it is “too close to call” how many seats his party will win in the Irish general election. Exit polls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}