Harris* Calls Election on Friday 29th...

[Dartz]

*Simon....

So - November 29th is the date. Simon Harris goes to the President to dissolve the Dail on Friday

The government just finished putting out a giveaway budget and hopes the rosey glow from that will carry them through. For the most part the glow is real. The amount of new Porsches and new BMW's and Audis rolling around  - along with all the fancy houses I'm doing work in - suggests *someone* is winning from this government. Or at least, not loosing at any rate. Simon Harris is popular with a lot of people.

On the other hands, rents, house prices, fuel prices and electricity prices are through the roof. A lot of smaller businesses like pubs, restaurants and even smaller concert venues are going to the wall because of it. I guess some people are partying. Others are paying for it.  The Temu Nazis will feed on this. The undercurrent of malaise is real - and there's already been an attack on a canvassing politician.

The Green Party will probably be crucified - because that always happens to the junior coalition partner. Sinn Fein basically evapourated in the polls recently and have been kicked by a few scandals - it looks like they're going to try to be the majority partner in the next coalition.

I'll go Social Democrats, Green Party, possibly labour, whatever local random independants hold my fancy, and then hold me nose for the FF/FG crowd because - well, what we have is better than the alternative, I guess. The current administration is just about tolereable in a "Won't doom us all" sort of way. A vote for them is a vote against the more dreadful alternatives

If it weren't for the utterly painful fuel (1.69 a litre of petrol was the cheapest I got recently - most of this is taxation) and electricity prices (#1 in the EU, Beyond even Germany once VAT is accounted for), the Greens have been fairly successful with the Bottle deposit scheme clearing up a lot of waste on beaches (When the bloody machines actually work), and the cheap public transport being welcome. Less hair-shirt stuff please. My private car is my only private personal space in this universe.

On the other hand, with the State coffers massively overflowing there's the vague sense that this government has ended up with a bit of a lottery win and is in real danger of following the same trajectory as most lottery winners.

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Things that might matter:
Check the Register.
I think you can apply online - though you can only vote in this if you're a Resident British Citizen, or a resident Irish Citizen.

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[Dartz]

A remarkably dull processesion of democracy ensured.

The Monk (A known criminal) saw the recent global uptick in serious criminals getting elected to high office and decided to give it a go. Almost got in, too Sherlock caught him and beat him to the last seat.

Labour are back from the doldrums after ten years.

The Green Party are back in the doldrums for ten years.

The Social Democrats are in danger of being the redshirt in a three-party coalition.

And the centre shrinks, but holds.

Really. Nothing new under the sun.

[robkelk]

My compliments to the electoral staff, for being able to count the votes in a transferable-vote election quickly enough to be able to tell even this much already.

[Dartz]

Generally, it helps having a 'small' population.
The way the Dail works:
1 Seat per 30,000 people
Minimum of 3 seats per constituency
Most constituencies are 3-5 seats so.

The upper limit on counting/counts comes from the quantity of candidates. In theory the maximum number of counts is N-1, where N is the number of candidates. The quantity of ballots being counted may also vary depending on the point we're in, and the quantity of votes being redistributed. Not every ballot is counted every time - only the ones that can be carried forward. The 13th count was the final one in my constituency. My own voted was only ever tallied on the 1st and 13th count.

In practice, this doesn't include recounts. There have been margins between candidates of 1 vote at certain stages in some counts.

We also have staff like this:


There were two attemptes in the 50's and 60's to replace STV with FPTP - both by the same party, and both times where that party ruled as a single-party majority rather than coalition. . This required a referendum since STV is constitutionally mandated. The electorate decided they liked the drama of counting, rather than Fianna Fail being a sort of 'Liberal Democrat Party' for Ireland..... they've still spend most of the intervening period either in power, or close to it. Up until they grenaded the economy.

But they're back now on top..