November 1982 Irish general election
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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 November 1982 Irish general election to the
The 24th Dáil met at
.Campaign
The second general election of 1982 took place just nine months after the election in February of the same year. There had never before been three general elections within eighteen months.
The general election was caused by the loss of support of the Independent 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 Teachta Dála (TDs) would not support. While economic issues dominated the campaign, the parties were weary of having to fight yet another general election.
Result
Election to the 24th Dáil – 24 November 1982[3][4][5][6] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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[a] | 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
Seats summary
Government formation
Fine Gael and the Labour Party formed the
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
The 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.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7.
External links
- November 1982 election: Party leaders' debate RTÉ archives
Further reading
- ISBN 0950598461.