Voting results show a ‘more promiscuous electorate’
So former taoiseach Bertie Ahern told Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in 2006. Last weekend, while Ahern’s St Luke’s machine could not get his brother elected to either the Dáil or Dublin City Council, Joe Higgins was successful in both the local and European elections. Aside from Higgins, the Socialist Party had three other candidates elected, the People Before Profit Alliance has five councillors, while the Workers’ Party won a seat in Cork for the first time in 30 years. There was also a wide array of left-leaning independents elected, not to mention the 54 seats won by Sinn Féin and 132 for Labour. Does this represent a “red dawn” in Irish politics?
Let’s consider the facts. The combined vote for all left-wing parties and some independents in Friday’s local elections was approximately 26%, barely more than the 25% won by a “decimated” Fianna Fáil. This vote for the left is also overly concentrated in urban areas. In more rural parts of the country — the eight county councils in Connaught-Ulster, for example Labour won only five out of 208 seats.
