FF/PD coalition did not get ‘thumping’ mandate

I AM puzzled by your leading article (May 29) in which you say the Taoiseach received “a thumping mandate”.

Leave aside the 13.5%, (Sinn Féin and Others) whose first preferences did not go to either bloc — more than half of those are far from being even covert Ahern supporters.

I see 44.3% (FF+PD) voting directly for the Ahern side and 42.1% (FG+Labour+Greens) voting for parties included in the Kenny alternative.

While the Greens never ruled themselves formally into the Alliance for Change, neither did they rule themselves out — and most people assumed they would be part of it.

How does a gap of 2.2% in the popular vote translate as a ‘thumping’?

In terms of seats, Enda Kenny, rightly, did not concede defeat in purely mathematical terms. The eventual difference in seats may have been politically or circumstantially significant (when very specific heads were counted), but not statistically so — as Fianna Fáil, behind all its euphoria and spin, well knows.

The Ahern mandate is wafer-thin.

Maurice O’Connell

19 Forge Park

Oakpark

Tralee

Co Kerry