Nationwide local authority elections
The 2024 Irish local elections were held in all local authorities in Ireland on Friday, 7 June 2024. European Parliament elections were held on the same day. It also included the 2024 Limerick mayoral election, for the first directly elected mayor in Ireland. Each local government area (a city, a county, or a city and county) is divided into local electoral areas (LEAs) where three to seven councillors are elected on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). This year saw a record number of women standing for election, with 31.4% (682 out of 2,171 candidates) being female. 26.1% of those elected were women (248 out of 949), a small increase compared to the last elections. Voter turnout for the elections was 49.4%, the first time less than half of registered voters participated, slightly down from 50.2% in 2019.
Campaign.
Violence and abuse against candidates.
On 8 May, Fingal councillor Tania Doyle and her husband, while erecting election posters, were assaulted by a man shouting anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric while an accomplice filmed it. Her husband was left bleeding and knocked to the ground by the assault which also saw Doyle herself punched in the head after she attempted to shield her husband. The assault lasted 15 minutes and only ended when the accomplice pulled the assaulter away from kicking Doyle's husband while on the ground. Doyle stated she feared for their lives and going forward would not be canvassing for the remainder of the election. The gardaí have stated that they are investigating the matter.
Concurrently on 8 May, Dublin City Councillor Janet Horner of the Green Party and a colleague claim she was assaulted by a man who said "Dublin 1 is for the far-right". Horner was erecting election posters when she was reportedly confronted by a man who threatened to kill her. She said the man confiscated her posters and struck her when she resisted. Horner contacted the gardaí afterwards and resolved to continue to canvass despite the event.
In another incident on 8 May, two women placing posters up in the Smithfield area of Dublin for Social Democrats candidate Ellen O'Doherty were threatened with a knife by a man demanding they remove the posters, who was then joined by another man. The women managed to escape when a local woman came from a nearby house and begged the men to stop. The campaigners reported the incident to the gardaí and said they would not canvass in future nor return to the area.
On 15 May Fianna Fáil candidate Suzzie O'Deniyi was canvassing with members of her team in the Caherdavin area of Limerick when a man is alleged to have begun screaming racist and sexist slurs about O'Deniyi at her supporters. The man recorded himself doing so on his phone. Aaron Daly of Caherdavin, was subsequently arrested by Gardaí, and was charged with two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, contrary to section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, before being released on bail. Daly was ordered to have no contact of any kind with O'Deniyi and to report to gardaí regularly until his trial, which was scheduled for 6 September 2024. Aaron Daly failed to appear in court when his case was called on 6 September 2024. A bench warrant for his arrest was issued.
On 17 May, Fine Gael candidate in Artane–Whitehall Linkwinstar Mattathil Mathew and his campaign team were forced to take down posters after they were racially abused and intimidated by a group of men. The perpetrators filmed the incident and posted it to social media.
On 16 May Tánaiste Micheál Martin denounced the targeting of candidates, noting that the large majority of those targeted were from minority backgrounds. Martin stated the right to run in elections was a pillar of liberal democracy, regardless of background.
Aftermath.
The results were seen as a victory for governing coalition parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and a disappointment for Sinn Féin, which had significantly underperformed its polling despite performing better than in the 2019 elections. Fine Gael credited the results to the resignation of Leo Varadkar, which injected "fresh energy" in the coalition. "The Guardian", who stated that "the local elections were a calamity for Sinn Féin", also reported that some figures within the coalition called on taoiseach Simon Harris to call for a snap election to "seize the momentum." Harris, Micheál Martin, and Eamon Ryan, rejected calls for an early election.
"Financial Times" reported that Sinn Féin did particularly poor because their core demographic, the working-class and youth, increasingly hardened on immigration, and instead voted for independents and far-right parties. These parties in turn saw an increase in support, with the Irish Freedom Party and National Party seeing their first ever elected officials, though the number of far-right candidates elected remained small. Independent candidates and the new right-wing Independent Ireland party notably performed well.
References.
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