Did the Far Left outpoll Labour? February 29, 2016
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.trackback
Doing some sums……
WP 3242
WUAG 7452
AAA-PBP 84,168
CPI 185
Then how to tell if an Independent is Left or not….. well I know Right2Change is flawed but if an Independent had signed up to it I figured that they were Left and most such as Bernie Hughes, Declan Bree, Cieran Perry have form as being Far Left.
Ind Right2Change 23,395
This includes Broughan, Daly, Martin, Collins and Wallace
Ind4change 31365 (-Wallace = 23448)
just to avoid any confusion I’ve taken Wallaces vote out….
Which gives a total of 141,890 …… as opposed to Labours 140,898 .
Parking and debate about about what constitutes left for the moment I’d include Thomas Pringle and Maureen O’Sullivan here, perhaps Catherine Connelly but we’ll see.
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Pringle is included as he was a Right2Change candidate. Maureen O’Sullivan and Catherine Connolly weren’t included.
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A crowd sourcing question:
Should the votes of any of the following R2C people come out of IEL’s total as being not left?
K Gilligan Carlow-Kilkenny
Paul Hand DSC
Bernie Hughes DNW
Barry Martin DFin
Kieran McCarthy CKEast
Michael Mooney Dgl
Kevin Murphy Kerry
Damien O’Neill DBN
Michael O’Gorman Kerry
Emmet Smyth Cav-Mon
Barbara Smyth Long-W
Brendan Young KildareN
Francis Timmons DMW
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Kieran McCarthy and Barbara Smyth would be possibilities. However (as mentioned above) Catherine Connolly would be a potential replacement in the list.
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McCarthy alone takes the total below that for Labour.
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Does you R2C total include the DDI candidates who used that label?
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No, just Independents
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One striking figure is 65.2% which is the turnout. Down 4.9% since 2011 and lower than most other European general elections of recent times.
So for all the talk of the ‘Irish people’ doing this or that, over a third of the population didn’t participate in the process.
Who are they? One thing which seems likely is that a large number of them are people so disenchanted with the system they don’t see the point of voting at all. A party which captured the allegiance of even one fifth of the abstainees would be away in a hack. After all more people appear not to care who won than voted for any party.
Personally speaking I know quite a few people who tell me they’ve never voted at all. They’re not eejits by and large but they see the entire process as an irrelevant parlour game played by other people.
34.8% couldn’t give a toss who wins our election. Worth thinking about.
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I’ve seen some comments to the effect that turnout is actually fairly constant but that what changes is the accuracy of the register.
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And this would be the first election with increased numbers of young voters on the register following USI’s registration drives for the marriage equality referendum and the general election itself, which would have increased the number below the like when percentage turnouts are calculated. (A bit like the opposite of people on job bridge reducing the percentage who are unemployed.)
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34.8% couldn’t give a toss who wins our election. Worth thinking about- Eamoncork- and of course that 34.8% is those who are regstered to vote. How much of those entitled to vote are not even on the register?
So, the real winner on 34.8% + are the absentionists!
Elections= Fool’s Gold
See Averil Power’s Seanad election campaign has kicked off in earnest…
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It does suggest that there may be some flaws in the media picture of a polity frothing with electoral excitement.
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I wonder what percentage of nonvoters are people who are registered but actually living outside the state? Given the significant outflow in the last five years, that might be a meaningful cause of the lower voting level.
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Very good point JC – thousands if not tens of thousands I would reckon, given the rate of adult emigration.
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When voting I noticed that a number of my neighbours children who have emigrated to the US and Australia were on the register.
I wonder how much of it is sentiment from the parents ‘just in case they come home’
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The register is in rag-order. Time after time on the canvass its inaccuracy was confirmed.
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Why the choice of the word ‘far’. Wouldn’t ‘decently Left’ be more accurate?
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Or indeed ‘actual left.’
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Even ‘left’ is ambiguous. Should we include those who do not describe themselves a s socialist but do say they are social democrats (lower case initial, to refer to the concept in general and not the three-leader party)?
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I’d be in favour of excluding anyone who doesn’t share a socialist world-view as per the dictionary definition of the word socialism; everyone else is just a waste of time. Though that might be taken by some as ‘sectarian’, I suppose they’d favour a definition based on the word hope…
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/socialism
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How did Regis Debray describe the left? Those who want change- the right doesn’t it is happy with the status quo.
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like i said elsewhere getting hung up on definitions is a waste of time and energy.
Better for far left/left/leftish/ somewhat leftish parties and individuals to agree on a common “To Do” list, starting with the easiest steps and moving up, modifying the list as required until the aims are achieved.
Then start drawing up a new list!!
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That’s not very dialectical 😉
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