Election time

[drone]

What Don is saying, is that in our system, we decide who will be the party's candidate in the primaries (a contest within the party), the winners of the party-specific primaries go to the general election to face the other party winners and independents. What he is asking is: How does FF choose a candidate to run for a particular MP spot? Who makes the decision that Sean Q. O'Public will be the FF candidate? Can 3 guys belonging to FF run for the same spot?

[Grey_Fox]

There are three FF candidates three FG candidates, three PD candidates, one Green candidate, one Labour candidate, three Independent candidates and one SF candidate running in my constituency, Galway West, for a total of five possible seats.

The members of each party in each constituency decide in a convention who will run for the party in the forthcoming election.

Independents can put themselves forward as a candidate so long as thirty people nominate the independent at the county registrar's office.

[Tribesman]

which polling station were you working in Fox ?

three Independent candidates

of which Cox is independant FF and Connoly is independant labour

[Grey_Fox]

I'm just going by what was written on the papers. To be honest my brain is rather slow after 16 hours of duty.

Not to be rude, but if I said which polling station I was you'd only have two people to guess from for who was me, and I like my anonymity. Lets just leave it as north Connemara shall we?

[Tribesman]

Lets just leave it as north Connemara shall we?

So lets guess it was all vote #1 for that bollox O'Cuiv up there

[Grey_Fox]

He's not a bollox...

Funny ting was a local publican rounded up his kids and the drunks and wasters in his pub, gave them strict orders on what to do and marched them up to us.

I tell you, it makes one fairly cynical.

[Don Corleone]

There are three FF candidates three FG candidates, three PD candidates, one Green candidate, one Labour candidate, three Independent candidates and one SF candidate running in my constituency, Galway West, for a total of five possible seats.

The members of each party in each constituency decide in a convention who will run for the party in the forthcoming election.

Independents can put themselves forward as a candidate so long as thirty people nominate the independent at the county registrar's office.

So the three FF candidates were picked by FF. In our system, the party doesn't pick who's going to run as the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate, we hold a primary election. We might have 10 Republicans seek to be the MP from New Hampshire's 1st disrict, and 15 Democrats. All the Republicans vote on which of the 10 they want and all the Democrats vote for which of the 15. Then the Republican that won her primary and the Democrat who won his, along with any 3rd party candidates and any independents run against each other in our general election. (And our MPs are actually called Representatives).

[Tribesman]

He's not a bollox...

He most certainly is , ever done any work through his department ?
ever been lumbered with having to use his cretinous relatives for the work ?
Look at all the rubbish he tries over road signs and changing town names ?
Ask any Taxi driver or tourist what trouble he causes them by insisting that every development in the city doesn't have an english name ?
And as for the grants your side of the corrib , what a joke ....people can apply and apply and get bugger all because they don't want to spend the allocation , but come the end of the financial year they will throw wads to any lame brained scheme just to show that they needed all the budget and really really need more next year .
Don't even get me started on his pet planning regulations projects

He is a walking bollox as were all the politicains in that family since the creation of the Free State.

[Strike For The South]

Go Le Pen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KukriKhan]

Ignorant American questions:

How much money changes hands in a typical ROI election? I don't mean the mechanical, 'run the election' cash, I mean the influence money. Can a ROI politician get rich as a politician? Can her vote, after being put into office, be bought by those who supported her? How about after her term - can she go to work for her election supporters without hindrence?

Are there rules in place about that sort of thing? How much TV/radio air time any individual candidate is allowed? How do they campaign? Door-knocking? Mailers? TV ads? Radio? Newspaper ads?

I don't mean to imply that there's anything amiss in the Republic's election process. Our own US system seems to find a correlation of cash = electoral victory, and I seek other country's ways to soften that 'rich fatcat' factor in our process.

Note: tried out the Thread-Labelling options. Seems to work. -Kukri

[Duke of Gloucester]

.....and now that we are both members of the EU, any citizen of the EU can vote in another EU states elections if they register and reside there.

I used to think this was true too, but EU citizens who are not British or Irish can only vote in local elections in the UK (not sure about elections to the European Parliament).

[Banquo's Ghost]

Early exit polls seem to indicate FF in a strong position.

Election 2007: Exit poll good news for FF

Friday, 25 May 2007 08:18

An RTÉ exit poll suggests that Fianna Fáil will win almost exactly the same share of the vote as in 2002, but that Fine Gael will increase its vote by around 4%.

The poll, carried out by Lansdowne Market Research, shows decreases in support for Labour and the PDs, while the Greens and Sinn Féin will be disappointed not to have made a major breakthrough.

While the current coalition parties have a lead over the alternative, the final result is likely to be close and to be determined by transfers.

On this morning's Morning Ireland programme, RTÉ Political Correspondent David McCullagh said just after they voted yesterday, 3,000 people at 166 polling stations in every constituency in the country were asked how they voted.

The poll has a margin of error of 2.5%, but after the last election, the RTÉ/Lansdowne Market Research exit poll proved to be extremely accurate.

It got the national first preference totals correct to within around one percentage point.

The experts have been crunching the numbers all night, and the results are as follows:

Fianna Fáil is on 41.6% - marginally above what it won in the last election

Fine Gael is on 26.3%, almost 4% ahead of its 2002 result

Potential coalition partner Labour has slipped 1% from the last time, down to 9.9%

The PDs look to be in serious trouble, down to 2.6%, a 1 1/2% drop from 2002

The Greens are up 1%, but will be disappointed to be at just 4.8%

There appears to be no big breakthrough for Sinn Féin, also up just under 1% to 7.3%

Independents and others are down nearly 3% at 7.5%

Of course, the first preference vote does not give a cast-iron indication of how many seats will be won.

Fianna Fáil got a huge seat bonus in the last election and the shape of the next Government may still be determined by transfers.

How much money changes hands in a typical ROI election? I don't mean the mechanical, 'run the election' cash, I mean the influence money. Can a ROI politician get rich as a politician? Can her vote, after being put into office, be bought by those who supported her? How about after her term - can she go to work for her election supporters without hindrence?

Sorry Kukri, but I have to give in to a temptation to a Tribesman moment:



Ahem. We have some of the most corrupt politicians in the Western world with their little fiefdoms. I'm sure someone can tell you the approximate sums, but I'd be willing to bet much of the US problem is down to heritage from Irish and Italians immigrants bringing their methods to politics over the pond.

And no-one seems to care - witness Mr Ahern on his way back.

[Grey_Fox]

EU citizens in Ireland can only vote in local and European elections, not Dáil elections.

In fairness to Bertie, there's very few politicians who don't accept money in the country. If you vote against him because of what came to light you'll just be voting for somebody who hasn't been exposed in the media for taking money.

I'm happy that the PD's are on the way out, and especially that Fiona O'Malley is taking it up the rear. Just a pity her fraud investigation didn't hit the papers before the election.

[Tribesman]

I'm happy that the PD's are on the way out

Pity Harney got in , but at least Mcdowell has gone for good .
The PDs are getting thouroughly stuffed , but it looks like Grealish is going to get in amazing isn't it , screw up on the by-pass so everyone takes the long route down the worst roads possible , but hey put a roundabout at Grealishs pub and stick up a sign saying "I built this to help you ain't I good" and people buy it and vote for the muppet
Looks like staus quo in Galway west , still there is always the hope that the snidey little racist crook Fahy will upset his russian "business" friends and end up having an ....errr....what is it again ?..oh yeah an unfortunate accident .

[Grey_Fox]

I dislike Fahy, bugger came out west stealing votes from Crowe instead of taking Grealish's. Moron.

At least Galway will be getting a light rail system soon enough though, bout bloody time too.

[Tribesman]

He didn't steal those votes, it was his daughter , and he can get hold of all the paperwork to prove it , once he can get someone to write it for him .
At least on the bright side the little doesn't come into the pub as often as he used to .

At least Galway will be getting a light rail system soon enough though, bout bloody time too.

Yeah scheduled for completion in 2156 , just after the build the new bridge and give us back the tap water .

[Grey_Fox]

Meh. I thought you were a builder? BURN IN HELL YOU VACILLATING FOOL!!!11!

[Tribesman]

I thought you were a builder?

yep .
light rail is on hold and it wouldn't fit anyway ,the bridge has had the money withdrawn . plus the areas where the link would have come out on the coast road have all either been built on already or just been granted planning permission, same with the land that was supposed to be for the moycullen by-pass .
Anyhow with 2156 I was just going on the scale of the projects , after all that new sewage plant ....hold on ...what do I mean new ...THE sewage plant was supposed to be built in 1967 .
Claregalway bypass was supposed to start in '97 , that was a condition for allowing the starting of all the huge housing estates out there , now the people on those estates can wait for up to 1/2 an hour just to get onto the N17 , then spend up to an hour going the few miles into town .

[Grey_Fox]

Bloody city councilors.

Who were the daft buggers that closed the rail network back in the 60's and 70's? Especially the lad that said that a civilised nation didn't need trains...

[Tribesman]

Bloody city councilors.

You don't have much dealings with the planning dept. do you
Its one of the main reasons why I say O'Cuiv is a bollox .

[InsaneApache]

I propose this be moved to the 'Speak your own Irish' thread.

Any seconders?

[Tribesman]

I propose this be moved to the 'Speak your own Irish' thread.

Go to hell ... or, barring that as uneconomical, go to less expensive Connaught; same thing.

[Tribesman]

Kukri your altertions to that post have made it seem more insulting rather than funny as it was intended, altering the play on a historical statement has trashed it , naughty mod
Anyhow with prices over here hell might be the cheaper option.

[KukriKhan]

Yeah, I,ve only half the wit of our native Irishers. I just wanted to make clear to our english-as-a-2nd-language crowd that you weren't actually consigning IA to the nether regions.

So, our Eire bretheren are satisfied with the election?

[Tribesman]

So, our Eire bretheren are satisfied with the election?

Safisfied that the PDs are stuffed completely .
Micheal D just this minute got elected on the 10th count
FF will probably get 78 seats , so its coilition time again , they might try and rely on ex-FF independants , but Cooper-Flynn is coming up on fraud corruption and tax evasion hearings so she should be gone soon , they might try with the greens or Labour , but that won't last , so it looks like there is a good chance that there will have to be another election very soon .
And since Bertie has said its his last election as leader maybe he will be gone , Bertie is a bit like Bush , some people seem to like him no matter what he does .
I suppose they could try a coilition with SF

[Grey_Fox]

Very happy. An FF government and a strong (at least in terms of numbers - I still reckon Kenny is too weak to be Taoiseach) opposition is what this country needs.

[Tribesman]

Fox , the problem remians though , FF havn't the numbers , who they gonna partner up with to form a government , and what price will the potential partners demand

[Banquo's Ghost]

I expect a Rabbitte in Bertie's future...

I can't say I'm satisfied, but reasonably content. FG made enough gains to be a strong opposition - as Grey_Fox noted, a good thing - and the PDs fell badly as did SF.

I do suspect we'll be doing this again quite soon though.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot. If anyone outside is bored enough to want to look at the detailed results, RTÉ have a decent round-up with most of the constituency info.

[Kralizec]

A minority government, then?

And this one goes out to Europeans in general. England's experiment with "New Labour" aside, what would be the difference between 'Labour' and 'Socialist' as actual parties?

In the Netherlands at least, the labour party has for the most part embraced the free market as an economical model. Our socialist party is much more archaic ideologically (kinda like the French PS or the old Labour of the UK, I suppose) and besides is much more a watchdog then a party with real ambitions of government.