Meath East: A byelection well worth watching…
By contrast there is a byelection in the Republic which will be well worth watching for two reasons: one, ahem, to see who wins; and two, how the others fall out.
With some folk starting to complain there’s too many polls in the field, this one will be an intriguing test of strength.
On the first question you cannot fault Harry McGee who plumps for a hold for Fine Gael. Especially if they choose Helen McEntee, the daughter of the late Deputy, Shane McEntee.
But Meath East is exactly the territory which switched wholesale away from FF last time out. In fact from two FF and one FG to 2 FG and 1 Labour (figures from Elections Ireland.
The Fianna Fail candidate Thomas Byrne, beside being one of the two FF TDs who lost their seats last time out, is one of those younger representatives that Micheal Martin managed to get into the Seanad past the party’s old guard. But he has a task that’s, on the face of it bigger than Patsy McGlone’s in Mid Ulster y overtipping FG’s higher than average share of the vote two years ago
I’d expect to see a surge from Sinn Fein here, who ought to profit directly from Labour’s flatlining in the polls. They’re likely to be targeting the household charge in this area.
How can a by election be held in a multi seat constituency? If Party X Won the fifth seat out of 5 at the general election but that TD died, surely his seat would be won at a by election by a bigger party therefore leaving Party X supporters unrepresented even if Party X doubled its support never mind kept the same level
Has this point ever been raised????
Downright stupid if you ask me
It’s a democracy P… where the seat belongs to the candidate rather than the party…
We all know that’s a conceit Mr F. PR exists to ensure smaller belief systems are legislatively represented as best as possible
When MLAs resign or die their parties coopt replacements. No Stormont bye elections.
The fairest thing is to coopt or put all that’s constituency seats up for election as the resignation or death of a member renders the entire representation of that seat null and void as the GE result was a result of the electoral filtration of the entire candidacy of which the ex men member was part off
It’s like removing that strawberry from the well blended smoothy. Make a new one