Irish general election, 1982 (November)
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Template:Politics of the Republic of Ireland The Irish general election of November 1982 was held on November 24, 1982, three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on November 4. The newly elected 166 members of the 24th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on December 14 when a new Taoiseach and government were appointed.
The general election took place in 41 parliamentary constituencies throughout the Republic of Ireland for 166 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann.
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Campaign
The second general election of 1982 took place just nine months after the first one in February of that year. While it is not the shortest Dáil in Irish history, it is unusual because never before had there been three general elections in eighteen months.
The general election was caused by the loss of support Independents and the Workers' Party for the Fianna Fáil government. This was due to the governmentss insistence on introducing substantial budget cuts, budget cuts which the left-wing supporters couldn't stomach. While economic issues dominated the campaign the parties were weary in having to fight yeat another general election.
Result
The results are as follows:
| Party | Leader | Seats | First Preferences | |||
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| # of Seats | Gain/Loss | % of Dáil | # of Votes | % | ||
| Fianna Fáil | Charles J. Haughey | 75 | -6 | 45.2 | 45.2 | |
| Fine Gael | Garret FitzGerald | 70 | +7 | 42.2 | 39.2 | |
| Labour Party | Dick Spring | 16 | +1 | 9.6 | 9.4 | |
| Workers' Party | Tomás MacGiolla | 2 | -1 | 1.2 | 3.3 | |
| Independents | 3 | -1 | 1.8 | 2.9 | ||
| 166 | 0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |||
After the votes were counted the result was inconclusive. Fine Gael records its biggest election victory, coming within five seats of Fianna Fáil. At other times Fioanna Fáil was often twice as big as Fine Gael. The Labour Party had a new leader with Dick Spring. A programme for government was quickly drawn up and Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gael becomes Taoiseach for the second time. The poor showing for Fianna Fáil results in a leadership challenge to Charles Haughey by his opponents within the party. Haughey wins the vote of confidence and remains as leader.
First Time TDs
See also
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