2022 Caldish general election

2022 Caldish general election

12 June 2022
All 399 seats to the Tionól 200 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats Social Democrats Stiofán Mac Suibhne 218 Liberty Party TBD 89 Nationals Liam Ó Cuillinn 57 Centre Lachlann Mac an Fhleisteir 12 Democratic Left Seán Ó Caoláin 8 Greens Colm Ó Corráin Ciara Nic Innes 6 Democrats Muirís Ó Branagáin 5 Pensioners Ellie Níc Raghnaill 1 Homeland Einion ap Calder 1
Incumbent Taoiseach Stiofán Mac Suibhne Social Democrats

A general election will be held in Caldia on 12 June 2022 to elect all 399 members of the Tionól. The elected members will then elect the Taoiseach of Caldia.

Elections in Caldia are part of a five-year cycle. The 2022 election will be held on 12 June regardless of a snap election.

Background

The 2019 general election saw the Social Democratic Party win a majority of seats and form their first government in almost 200 years. The PSD won 218 seats with 48.8% of the vote. Stiofán Mac Suibhne became the taoiseach and has held the post since. The office opposition, led by Pádraig Mac Piarais of the Liberty Party, won 89 seats. Other opposition parties included the National Party, the Centre Party, the Labour Party (now Democratic Left), the Greens, Caldish Democrats, the Pensioners' Party, and Homeland. Two Independents were also elected.

The government passed the Instrument for Governance Act of 2021, reforming the constitution. The Comhthionól Náisiúnta effectively became the unicameral Tionól starting on 12 May 2021.

Electoral system

Of the 399 members of the Tionól, 200 are elected in multi-member constituencies and 199 are selected based on a party's vote share. The presiding officer is automatically re-elected if standing again, but the incumbent had retired meaning all 399 seats were contested.

Members are elected using mixed-member proportional representation. Caldia has 52 multi-member constituencies. Each consistency consists of three to five members. Members are selected using a version of single-transferable vote known as the Ní Dochartaigh method. Under this process, voters rank candidates by first and second preference. Unlike other methods of single transferable vote, they can only rank candidates in this order and cannot transfer their vote to more than one additional candidate.

The remaining members are allocated to parties who rank their candidates on an open list in which voters can rank candidates on their own. Voters can either support a party's top candidate or give their vote to another candidate on the list. This could allow a candidate to move up the list. For this to occur, a candidate must receive more than 25% of the total number of votes cast for the party. This allows for parties to retain significant control over candidates elected on the open list.

For a new party to become eligible, it has to register the support of 25,000 registered voters with the Caldish Electoral Board before 12 May 2021. For a new party to enter the Tionól it had to receive more than 2.5% of the national vote share or win a seat in a multi-member constituency. Independents only require the support of 10,000 registered voters, making ballot access easier.

Participating parties

Parties contesting the elections

Party			Leader	Last election
	PSD	Social Democratic Party	Stiofán Mac Suibhne	48.8	218 seats
	S	Liberty Party	TBD	18.4	89 seats
	PN	National Party	Liam Ó Cuillinn	13.6	57 seats
	PM	Centre Party	Lachlann Mac an Fhleisteir	4	12 seats
	DC	Democratic Left	Seán Ó Caoláin	3.1	8 seats
	G	The Greens	Colm Ó Corráin Ciara Nic Innes	3	6 seats
	D	Caldish Democrats	Muirís Ó Branagáin	2.5	5 seats
	PP	Pensioners	Ellie Níc Raghnaill	1.2	1 seat
	M/TD	Homeland	Einion ap Calder	.2	1 seat
	N	Independents	Individual candidates	1.3	2 seats