Ireland votes for new faces, not new policies

So the election is over. There is a great amount of self-congratulatory comment about how the election was a democratic revolution. While the result of the election was excellent for both center-right Fine Gael and center-left Labour and a renunciation of centrist, populist Fianna Fáil, I would hardly call it a "revolution."

It's more like a change of management than a revolution. Fianna Fáil failed - spectacularly so - to manage the government, the banks, the economy, etc. The people didn't revolt, however, they simply replaced the management team with Fine Gael and Labour (presumably - the coalition deal is not finalized yet).

The biggest issue here at the moment is how will we cope with the massive debts thanks to our bank guarantee and the huge hole in the public finances due to mismanagement of income and expenses by the previous government. During the campaign both parties pledged, essentially, to ask the EU and European Central Bank (ECB) to cut us a break, but nothing more than that. Unlike some of the smaller parties and independent candidates, neither Fine Gael nor Labour vowed to repudiate the debts of Irish banks. We're stuck with those.

On the fiscal deficit, the two parties had slight variations on the theme of government cutbacks and increased taxes, which has been laid down by our ECB/IMF overlords. Again nothing drastic and nothing that can't be settled in negotiations between the two main parties.

This is what the people wanted: new, hopefully better management, but no real change. This little detail was lost in most of the breathless coverage in the Irish media, which was focused on the collapse in the vote for the previously inevitable Fianna Fáil. They now have only 20 members in Ireland's parliament (Dáil), down from 71 before the election.

Fianna Fáil has been dealt a serious blow. They may not recover. Yet they may. Either way, it hardly compares with the changes and state of flux across many states in North Africa. They're having revolutions. We're not.

{Photo - Fine Gael leader and probably Ireland's next Prime Minister, Enda Kenny}

Ireland votes today - tune in tomorrow for result

Way back when I lived in New York there used to be a television ad for a women's clothes store Annie Sez: "I haven't done it yet, but I'm dying to." That's how I feel today about voting. I haven't gone to the polling station yet, but I'm looking forward to getting there. From what I've heard in the reports on the radio, I'm not the only person in Ireland who is keen to cast a ballot today.

The polls are open until 10pm tonight (5pm EST), which means that those of you in America and Canada who are interested in the outcome of today's vote may expect the result before you sit down to dinner tonight. You can expect it all you want, but you won't be getting it.

The polls close at 10pm, but the counting of votes doesn't start until tomorrow morning Irish time. It will be a number of hours before any results start to come in, so you should contain your excitement until you have had your bagel and coffee tomorrow morning.

Our voting system is a bit antiquated, but I like it. If you're a politics junkie it's a great spectacle. The only real drawback is having to wait until the day after the vote for the excitement to start.

Ireland uses a proportional representation system with a single transferable vote. What this means to the voter is that you don't make a simple choice of one candidate, but that you rank the candidates in order of your preference. {If you want a detailed explanation - it's really complex and I have yet to read an explanation that hasn't had some comments taking issue with the explanation - go here.}

Even though that may sound straight forward, the implications are endless rounds of counting and recounting ballots as those with low totals are eliminated and second choices, then third choices, etc. on those ballots are then counted. The number of candidates on the ballot and to be elected varies by constituency. In Wicklow - where I live - there are 24 candidates seeking 5 seats in the parliament (Dáil).

From what I can determine, most people only rank their top two, three or four candidates. In the past I have ranked them all as I find it easier to know who least want to see win than who I want to win.

This process makes the pre-election polls a little less accurate as pollsters only ask about the Number 1 preferences, but the 2, 3 & 4 preferences are crucial. Very few candidates get enough first preferences to get elected in the first round.

All of the ballots are paper with pencil markings and all the counting is by hand, which is why it can take so long to get a result. It's all very low tech, but to the political junkie the coverage is compelling as experts pronounce on what will happen in transfers between candidates in the same party, across party lines and based on rural vs urban, the town or village the candidates come from.

Once the official numbers start coming in, they provide further analysis on trends, etc. It's amazing how riveting it can be as you listen to the various party representatives, journalists and academics talk excitedly about what neighborhood or hamlet a certain unopened ballot box comes from.

The show starts early tomorrow, but it won't really heat up until afternoon.

Candidate for our 'time'

Joe Higgins won a seat in the European Parliament. Joe was late entering the campaign, sort of reluctant, but he won. Now I'm not really excited by his win other than I figure his posters went a long way towards putting him over the top.

I voted

And just like that it's over. The election was today and the polls closed about 15 minutes ago. Who won? Who knows? They don't start counting the votes until the morning.

It's been a long time since I voted in America. The last election I can remember clearly was Dinkins vs Giuliani I. By the time they made the sequel I was living here and ineligible to vote. Anyway, that's 20 years ago, but I remember going into the booth and pulling the little levers and walking out about 20 seconds later. That's not how it works here.

We have proportional representation here. How does it work? Well, roughly, you write a 1 in the box next to your favored candidate and a 2 next to your second favorite and carry on that way. (You can get the full picture here.) I love the whole paper and pencil feel to it. So 19th-century-town-hallish, if you know what I mean.

Today we voted for three representative bodies that - as far as I can tell - have very little power or impact on my life. I voted for town council, county council and European Parliament. All of those have some minor powers, but the local councils have little power compared with the unelected county manager and the European Parliament has virtually no power when compared with the European Commission and the even more powerful European Council (all the various heads of the member states).

By this time tomorrow we'll know who won the local elections, but I don't think they're counting the European votes until Monday. I think they're waiting until every country has voted. Most are voting on Sunday.

It's poster season

I get back to America a lot, but I can't remember the last time I was there at election time. We have elections here on June 5 and one feature of Irish elections is the posters. They seem to be hung on every lamppost and on just about any other roadside feature you see. The faces on the posters are rarely attractive, but the colors make for a change - especially with the number of gray days we've been having lately.

Thanks to the Irish voting system we have here we have many parties and independent candidates in all elections. That, of course, means a whole load of posters using a wide array of color schemes. On June 5 we'll be voting in two elections - one for our representatives at the European Parliament and also our local councils. There are at least six parties contesting elections in my area along with a half dozen or so independents. And many of the parties field two or three candidates hoping to win multiple seats. That's why there are so many posters.

I heard a guy on the radio the other day complaining about one poster that had half fallen off a lamppost and was dangling upside down in front of a traffic light. They do half fall quite a bit, but I guess it's pretty rare that they fall directly in front of a traffic light.

The posters are not made of cardboard, but of a harder (maybe plastic?) material. Some of them are pretty big too. That's not as obvious when you're driving along because you only glance at them and they're often fairly high up, but if one happened to fall on your head, it would hurt. And, as my wife's friend discovered recently, it can be pretty frightening to have one blow down onto your car as you're driving.