Election results reflect changing political landscape in Ireland

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Sunday night was re-elected by a narrow margin as a member of the lower house of the Irish parliament in the country’s general election, indicating declining support for his ruling party Fine Gael.

In Ireland, one can not be a prime minister or serve in the cabinet without being elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) in the country’s lower house.

The total number of votes Varadkar managed to grasp from his constituency Dublin West was 8,763, only 37 votes more than the minimum required quota for an elected TD, according to figures announced by a returning officer at Dublin West count center late on Sunday night.

More embarrassing is that Varadkar’s victory did not come until after five rounds of vote counting whereas a candidate fielded by Sinn Fein party in his constituency got elected in just one round of counting by amassing 12,456 votes, accounting for nearly 29 percent of the total votes of the Dublin West constituency.

Varadkar’s narrow escape reflects a drastic change in the country’s political landscape, which has surprised not only Varadkar himself, but also many others.

By 4:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Monday, the official results of the vote count showed that out of the 78 seats filled in the 160-seat Dail, 29 seats went to Sinn Fein while Fine Gael secured only 14 seats, not only much lower than Sinn Fein but also two seats less than Fianna Fail, another major political party in Ireland, which has swapped power with Fine Gael to govern the country since the 1930s.

In sharp contrast with Varadkar and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald easily beat her rivals to become an elected TD by winning nearly 36 percent of the votes from her Dublin Central constituency in the first round of counting.

Martin did not get elected from his Cork South-Central constituency until after six rounds of counting and received less than 20 percent of the votes from his constituency.

The rapidly growing popularity of Sinn Fein among the Irish voters, especially younger voters aged from 18 to 35, is mainly due to the party’s promises to combat soaring housing prices and deteriorating public health problems as well as its call for unification between Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland after Brexit, analysts said here.