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2004 Irish local elections

The 2004 Irish local elections were held in all the counties, cities and towns of Ireland on Friday, 11 June 2004, on the same day as the European elections and referendum on the amending the constitutional provisions on citizenship. Polling was delayed until 19 June 2004 in County Roscommon, due to the sudden death of Councillor Gerry Donnelly.

Turnout was the highest for 20 years at around 60%,[1] helped by the extra publicity of the referendum. The result was a setback for Fianna Fáil, which saw its share of the vote drop by 7 percentage points from its 1999 result to 32%, losing 20% of its council seats.[2] The party lost its majority on Clare County Council for the first time in 70 years, and fell behind Fine Gael in Galway, Limerick and Waterford city councils.[3] Labour's share of the vote remained static at 11% while Fine Gael dropped 1%. However, both parties gained seats with the Labour Party becoming the largest party on Dublin City Council. Major gains were made by Sinn Féin which managed to double the number of seats it held, mainly at the expense of Fianna Fáil.

These were the first elections since the Local Government Act 2001 modernised council structures and abolished the dual mandate. Many new councillors were elected for the first time, including 33 of the 52 of the councillors on Dublin City Council, which the city manager described as "unprecedented in the history of local government".[3] Many of the seats vacated by TDs and senators were won by family members.[4]

Results

Voters received different-coloured ballot papers for the European election, city/county council election, and referendum, all of which went into the same ballot box and were separated by colour once the boxes arrived at the count centre for the city/county. According to the different franchises in Irish law, all residents were eligible to vote in the local elections, all EU citizens were eligible to vote in the European elections, and the referendum was confined to Irish citizens. Voters in towns with town councils received an additional ballot for that election, cast in a separate ballot box and counted locally within the town.[5]

County, city and town council seats

County and City Councils

Vote share of parties in the election for County and City Councils

  Fianna Fáil (31.8%)
  Fine Gael (27.6%)
  Labour Party (11.4%)
  Sinn Féin (8.0%)
  Green Party (3.9%)
  Progressive Democrats (3.8%)
  Other (13.5%)

Borough and town councils

Borough councils

Town councils

Notes

  1. ^ Includes 5 borough councillors for the Workers and Unemployed Action Group.
  2. ^ Michael Gleeson of the South Kerry Independent Alliance is included in this total.

References

  1. ^ Donnelly, Seán (14 June 2004). "The best local election turnout in nearly 20 years". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  2. ^ Hennessy, Mark; O'Regan, Michael (15 June 2004). "'A very bad performance' – Ahern". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  3. ^ a b McDonald, Frank (15 June 2004). "FF will find loss of power a bitter pill to swallow". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  4. ^ O'Halloran, Marie (15 June 2004). "Politicians hit by dual-mandate ban opt to pass on council mantle to their relatives". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  5. ^ Murphy, Tom (10 June 2004). "91,000 people are eligible to vote". Wicklow People. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2018.