Counting continues, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael lead

Irish government parties Fine Gael and Fine Gael are vying for the lead in local elections in the Republic of Ireland as vote counting continues.

More than 800 councilors have been elected, with 949 seats to be filled in 31 local authorities.

Fine Gael tops the list with 215 MPs; Fianna Fáil has 205.

The main opposition Sinn Féin has won 91 seats so far, less than half as many as its government rivals and well below its target of 200 seats.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald admitted she was “disappointed” with the party’s election performance but also confirmed she had There are no plans to resign as party leader.

Since the current Irish government was formed in June 2020, Fine Gael, the Irish Federal Party and the Green Party voted to form a coalition government together.

The Independence Party also performed well in the election results – they have gained 164 parliamentary seats so far.

Counting is also underway for the European Parliament elections and the Limerick mayoral race.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews told BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster that local election results so far showed “government parties have momentum”.

“It shows that people are generally satisfied with what the government is doing,” he said.

“The strength of this center is good news, especially when you look at what’s happening across the EU, which is the massive growth of the far right.”

Fine Gael senator Emer Currie added it was a “great night for the party”.

“We provide stability and show the importance of centrist politics. We are investing in the community and people are seeing that.

“There is plenty of room in the center for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”

Meanwhile, Greens leader Eamon Ryan told the BBC that the government party had generally had “a successful campaign”.

However, he added that the Greens would lose “a significant number of seats” in local elections compared with their performance in 2019.

“We expected this to happen because 2019 was really a high-water mark for environmental politics across Europe,” he said.

“But by holding our own in many constituencies and having the chance to win two seats in the European elections, we remain very strong.”

As of Monday morning, the Green Party had won 21 parliamentary seats.

Sinn Féin expects to have more councilors elected to local authorities than at the last local election, but so far it has not secured the numbers it wants.

Critics suggest The party elected too many candidates Its votes are too spread out.

There are also concerns internally that Sinn Féin has failed to provide sufficient clarity on immigration policy to voters.

Its leader, Ms McDonald, said she would lead a comprehensive review of Sinn Féin’s performance.

Sinn Féin TD Padraig MacLochlainn stressed the party had “gained seats across the state, but not to the level we had hoped for”.

“The last local elections in 2019 were disastrous for Sinn Féin,” he said.

“This election was always about catching up. We didn’t regain the lost ground we had hoped for.

In Ireland, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

The current government party, Fine Gael, is now the largest party in local government, having replaced government partner Fianna Fáil.

As counting continues, the big news in Ireland is the success of independent candidates.

Non-party representatives of all stripes swept through parliaments in rural and urban areas. In Europe, a similar story emerged.

Centrist parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are likely to be the first MEPs to announce their return to Brussels.

Sinn Féin, once expected to shake up Irish politics, has failed to take over local councils but could return to Europe with MEPs in tow.

Once out of reach in political polls, the party’s support has slumped as it has struggled to confirm its stance on immigration and asylum seeker housing.

Their leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said “lessons will be learned” from the experience.

It was her second disappointment at local and European elections since taking over from Gerry Adams in 2018.

On Friday, voters went to the polls for three elections.

The polls will give political parties a sense of voter sentiment ahead of the next general election, which must be held by March 2025.

Polling stations across the European Union closed at 22:00 on Sunday evening to allow counting centers to begin publishing European election results.

A total of 14 MEPs will be elected from the three constituencies of South Ireland, North West Midlands and Dublin.

However, no candidates were elected in the European constituencies of Dublin, the North West Midlands or the South of Ireland last night.

The Republic of Ireland uses a proportional representation (PR) voting system in all elections.

Local councilors, TDs (Members of the Irish Parliament); Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and even the President of Ireland are elected through PR elections.

Under the PR system, each voter has a transferable vote (STV).

This means that in each constituency, people can vote for any number of candidates on the ballot and indicate their choice in numerical order.

The PR-STV system means that if a voter’s first-preference candidate is eliminated because he received too few first-preference votes, those votes can be reallocated to the remaining candidates based on the voter’s second preference, and so on.

Additionally, if a candidate receives more votes than required to meet electoral quotas, the excess votes can be redistributed according to voters’ preferences.

The benefit of the Pakatan Rakyat electoral system compared to a simple first-past-the-post election is that the Pakatan Rakyat tends to give smaller parties and independents a better chance of winning seats against larger, more established parties.

It also gives voters more say in who represents them, because they can indicate other preferences if their first-choice candidate has little hope of winning.

But critics of the PR system argue it could lead to weak coalitions coming to power rather than a government with an outright majority able to rule decisively.

They also argue that PR allows parties to stay in power by forming new coalitions, even if their support has declined.