electoral system: Republic of Ireland

Method by which members of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), comprising the Seanad Éireann (senate) and Dáil Éireann (lower house), are elected. The system is one of proportional representation (PR) through the single transferable vote (STV) or PR–STV.

Candidates for the Dáil are listed on the ballot paper alphabetically by surname with the name of their party, if any. Voters mark their ballot ‘1’ to their first choice, ‘2’ to their second, and so on. In this way, voters inform the returning officer where to ‘transfer’ their vote along if a higher preference candidate has reached the quota or been eliminated. The quota is calculated by counting the number of valid papers in a constituency, dividing this by the number of seats available in the constituency plus 1, and then adding 1 to the result. In a 4-seat constituency with 40,000 voters that is:

40,000 divided by 5 (4 seats plus 1) equals 8,000, add 1 giving a quota of 8,001.

On reaching a quota, a candidate's surplus votes are transferred to the second placed candidate on the ballot. If no candidate has reached a quota the least placed candidate is eliminated and his or her votes are distributed to the other candidates according to the next stated preference. This continues until the designated number of seats are filled or, if two candidates remain and only one seat is to be filled, the candidate with the higher number of votes is elected. Although this system allows a tendency towards the over-representation of larger parties, it enables small parties and independents to win seats. 166 TDs (Teachta Dála; member of parliament) are elected to the Dáil from 41 constituencies, each with three to five seats. 43 senators are elected to the Seanad from five vocational panels: agriculture, labour, language and culture, industry and commerce, and public administration; see Seanad Éireann.