November 1982 Irish general election
The November 1982 Irish general election to the 24th Dáil was held on Wednesday, 24 November, three weeks after the dissolution of the 23rd Dáil on 4 November by President Patrick Hillery, on the request of Taoiseach Charles Haughey following a defeat of the government in a motion of confidence. The general election took place in 41 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas.
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166 seats in Dáil Éireann[a] 84 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 72.9%  0.9pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 24th Dáil met at Leinster House on 14 December to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a new government of Ireland. Garret FitzGerald was appointed Taoiseach, forming the 19th government of Ireland, a coalition government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party.
Campaign
editThe second general election of 1982 took place just nine months after the election in February of the same year. It was the first time there had been three general elections within eighteen months.
The general election was caused by the loss of support of the Independent Teachta Dála (TD) Tony Gregory and the Workers' Party for the Fianna Fáil government. This was due to the government introducing substantial budget cuts, which the left-wing TDs would not support. While economic issues dominated the campaign, the parties were weary of having to fight yet another general election.
Result
edit| Election to the 24th Dáil – 24 November 1982[3][4][5][6] | ||||||||
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| Party | Leader | Seats | ± | % of seats |
First pref. votes |
% FPv | ±% | |
| Fianna Fáil | Charles Haughey | 75 | –6 | 45.2 | 763,313 | 45.2 | –2.1 | |
| Fine Gael | Garret FitzGerald | 70 | +7 | 42.2 | 662,284 | 39.2 | +1.9 | |
| Labour | Dick Spring | 16 | +1 | 9.6 | 158,115 | 9.4 | +0.3 | |
| Workers' Party | Tomás Mac Giolla | 2 | –1 | 1.2 | 54,888 | 3.3 | +1.0 | |
| Democratic Socialist | Jim Kemmy | 0 | New | 0 | 7,012 | 0.4 | – | |
| Green | 0 | New | 0 | 3,716 | 0.2 | – | ||
| Irish Republican Socialist | Jim Lane | 0 | 0 | 0 | 398 | 0.0 | -0.2 | |
| Communist | Eugene McCartan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 259 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Independent | N/A | 3[a] | –1 | 1.2 | 38,735 | 2.3 | –0.5 | |
| Spoilt votes | 12,665 | — | — | |||||
| Total | 166 | 0 | 100 | 1,701,385 | 100 | — | ||
| Electorate/Turnout | 2,335,153 | 72.9% | — | |||||
Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (7,997 votes, 1 seat).
Voting summary
editSeats summary
editGovernment formation
editFine Gael and the Labour Party formed the 19th government of Ireland, a majority coalition.
Fine Gael recorded its best election result until 2011, coming within five seats of Fianna Fáil; at other times (such as 1977) Fianna Fáil had been twice as big as Fine Gael. The Labour Party had a new leader with Dick Spring. A programme for government was quickly drawn up and Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gael became Taoiseach for the second time. The poor showing for Fianna Fáil resulted in a leadership challenge to Charles Haughey by his opponents within the party. Haughey won the vote of confidence and remained as leader.
Dáil membership changes
editThe following changes took place as a result of the election:
- 5 outgoing TDs retired
- 1 vacant seat at election time
- 159 outgoing TDs stood for re-election (also John O'Connell, the outgoing Ceann Comhairle who was automatically returned)
- 138 of those were re-elected
- 21 failed to be re-elected
- 27 successor TDs were elected
- 18 were elected for the first time
- 9 had previously been TDs
- There were 6 successor female TDs, increasing the total by 6 to 14.
- There were changes in 22 of the 41 constituencies contested
Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only.
Seanad election
editThe Dáil election was followed in early 1983 by an election to the 17th Seanad.
Notes
edit- ^ a b Including John O'Connell (Ind), returned automatically for Dublin South-Central as outgoing Ceann Comhairle, under Art. 16.6 of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 1963, as amended.[1][2]
- ^ Loughnane died in October, some weeks before the general election.
References
edit- ^ Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1980, s. 1: Amendment of section 14 of Electoral Act 1963 (No. 40 of 1980, s. 1). Enacted on 23 December 1980. Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book.
- ^ "24th Dáil 1982 November: Dublin South-Central". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ "Election results and transfer of votes in general election (November, 1982) for twenty-fourth Dáil and bye-elections to twenty-third Dáil (March–November, 1982)" (PDF). Houses of the Oireachtas. Dublin Stationery Office. August 1983.
- ^ "24th Dáil November 1982 General Election". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 4 June 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
- ^ "Dáil elections since 1918". ARK Northern Ireland. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
- ^ Nohlen, Dieter; Stöver, Philip (2010). Elections in Europe: A data handbook. pp. 1009–1017. ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7.
External links
edit- November 1982 election: Party leaders' debate RTÉ archives
Further reading
edit- Nealon, Ted; Brennan, Séamus; Menzies, Gina (eds.). Nealon's guide: 24th Dáil & Seanad: 2nd election '82. Platform Press. ISBN 0950598461.