2019 Caldish general election

2019 Caldish general election

18 February 2019
All 399 seats to the Comhthionól Náisiúnta 200 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	87.6 ( 1.2%)
Party Leader % Seats ± Social Democrats Stiofán Mac Suibhne 48.8% 218 +101 Liberty Party Pádraig Mac Piarais 18.4% 89 -67 Nationals Liam Ó Cuillinn 13.6% 57 +34 Centre Cúan Ó Domhnaill 4% 12 -21 Labour Nuala Nic Chonmara 3.1% 8 -20 Greens Colm Ó Corráin Ciara Nic Innes 3% 6 -5 Democrats Muirís Ó Branagáin 2.5% 5 -13 Pensioners Ellie Níc Raghnaill 1.2% 1 0 Homeland Einion ap Calder .2% 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Taoiseach before Taoiseach after Humphrey Dumfries Liberty Stiofán Mac Suibhne Social Democrats

A snap general election was held in Caldia on 18 February 2019 to elect all 399 members of the Comhthionól Náisiúnta. The elections were called following the collapse of the centre-right coalition government.

The election resulted in a victory for the Social Democratic Party, which won 218 of 399 seats, a parliamentary majority. The Social Democrats' leader Stiofán Mac Suibhne was its candidate for Taoiseach and was invited by King Kenneth IV to form a government. The incumbent Liberty Party, which until January had led a coalition government consisting of the Centre Party and the Caldish Democrats, was defeated. Liberty was reduced to 89 seats, its worst ever performance.

On 19 February, incumbent Taoiseach Humphrey Dumfries of the Liberty Party submitted his resignation to the king. Mac Suibhne was tasked with forming the next government. It was sworn in on 27 February after the Comhthionól reconvened. A single-party Social Democratic government took office for the first time since June 1997.

Background

In the 2017 general election, a narrow majority was won by the Liberty Party, Centre Party, and the Caldish Democrats. Together, they won a total of 206 and a centre-right coalition led by the Liberty Party's leader Jimmy O'Reilly was formed. In May 2019, a new government was formed following a diplomatic incident that say O'Reilly lose the support of his coalition partners. Frank Casarnach led a continuation of the coalition following a cabinet shake-up. The coalition had a five-year mandate that ended early when the Centre Party and the Caldish Democrats left the government after Casarnach was implicated in a big-rigging scandal. Despite refusing to resign or call an election, Casarnach was removed from office by King Kenneth IV. His deputy, Humphrey Dumfries was invited by the king to form a caretaker government and a snap election was called for 18 February 2019.

Electoral system

Of the 399 members of the Comhthionól, 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 XX 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 had to register the support of 25,000 registered voters with the Caldish Electoral Board before 18 January. New parties are usually given more time to prepare, but the nature of the snap election reduced the time they had. For a new party to enter the Comhthionól it had to receive more than 2.5% of the national vote share win a seat in a multi-member constituency. Independents only require the support of 10,000 registered voters, making ballot access easier.

Retiring incumbents

The following members of the 32nd Comhthionól did not seek re-election.

Constituency	Departing TD	Party		First elected	Date confirmed
Aerach East	Sarah Pingins		Liberty	1992	14 January 2019
List	Nicolás Cummins		Liberty	1982	12 January 2019
List	Jimmy O'Reilly		Liberty	2007	7 January 2019
Shanbally North	Frank Casarnach		Liberty	2007	5 January 2019

Participating parties

Parties contesting the elections

Party			Leader	Last election
	S	Liberty Party	Humphrey Dumfries	TBD	156 seats
	PSD	Social Democratic Party	Stiofán Mac Suibhne	TBD	117 seats
	PL	Centre Party	Cúan Ó Domhnaill	TBD	33 seats
	PLO	Labour Party	Nuala Nic Chonmara	TBD	28 seats
	PN	National Party	Liam Ó Cuillinn	TBD	23 seats
	D	Caldish Democrats	Máire Ní Briain	TBD	16 seats
	G	The Greens	Colm Ó Corráin Ciara Nic Innes	TBD	11 seats
	PMSA	Free Market Party	Muirís Ó Raghallaigh	TBD	7 seats
	PNG	Ghaillish Independence Party	Maelsheachlainn Mac Seanáin	TBD	6 seats
	(Y/AA)	Forward	Duane ap Drummond	TBD	1 seat
	PP	Pensioners	Ellie Níc Raghnaill	TBD	1 seat
	N	Independents	39 individual candidates	TBD	2 seats
	(M/TD)	Homeland	Einion ap Calder	TBD	Did not win seats