It’s been thrilling to watch the results coming in from the Irish election over this weekened. Veteran Irish broadcaster Dr. John Bowman called this election the most siginificant in Ireland since 1918. But what really is stunning is the turnout: 70.1%.
The Irish have been hell and high water recently, and still have dark times to live through. But at least there is now a government coming into place with a strong mandate for confident action.
It just seemed high when compared to 59% for the UK in 2001 or 57.6% for Northern Ireland in 2010. You’re right I was probably over the top with the word “stunning”. “High” would have been more apposite.
I would say ‘high’ rather than stunning.
Of course with the STV form of Proportional Representation in quite small constituencies then in Ireland the adage that ‘all politics is local’ really holds. Listening to the results on RTE on Saturday it was clear that a lot of the vote transfers can be locality as well as party based. This makes for interesting fights for the last seats.
photo credit: BlackburnPhoto
February 28, 2011 at 8:15 am
I don’t see what is ‘stunning’ about a 70% turnout. Especially in these circumstances. It is only around 3% more than in 2007.
Given the state of the Irish economy a 90% turnout might have been expected.
I’d call 70% disappointing
February 28, 2011 at 10:35 am
It just seemed high when compared to 59% for the UK in 2001 or 57.6% for Northern Ireland in 2010. You’re right I was probably over the top with the word “stunning”. “High” would have been more apposite.
February 28, 2011 at 4:00 pm
I would say ‘high’ rather than stunning.
Of course with the STV form of Proportional Representation in quite small constituencies then in Ireland the adage that ‘all politics is local’ really holds. Listening to the results on RTE on Saturday it was clear that a lot of the vote transfers can be locality as well as party based. This makes for interesting fights for the last seats.