Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has called a general election for the 30^th Dáil, which will be held on Thursday, May 24, 2007. Under the terms of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005, the size of Dáil Éireann remains unchanged at 166 seats, but constituency boundaries have been redrawn and the number of constituencies will increase from 42 to 43: four existing constituencies (Longford-Roscommon, Meath, Sligo-Leitrim and Westmeath) have been abolished and replaced with five new constituencies (Longford-Westmeath, Meath East, Meath West, Roscommon-South Leitrim and Sligo-North Leitrim). In addition, Cork North Central and Dublin North-Central lose a seat each, while Dublin Mid-West and Kildare North gain one apiece.

Members of Dáil Éireann are elected by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system of proportional representation, reviewed in Part I of Parliamentary Elections in Ireland - Elections to Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives). The full text of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005 is available here (link to the Irish Statute Book website); the Constituency Commission website has additional information on the constituency boundary review.

STV, which is also used in Assembly and local elections in Northern Ireland, as well as parliamentary elections in Malta, will be introduced in Scotland this Thursday for local government elections (or re-introduced if its use in Scottish Education authorities elections from 1919 to 1928 is taken into account). Australia, which is expected to hold a general election later this year, also uses STV for Senate elections.

In other election-related news, the Irish Times reports that an alternative government coalition made up of Fine Gael and Labour, with the possible support of the Greens, now stands narrowly ahead of the ruling Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition.