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Election to the 29th Dáil From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2002 Irish general election to the 29th Dáil was held on Friday, 17 May, just over three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday, 25 April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. The general election took place in 42 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, with a revision of constituencies since the last election under the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1998.
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166 seats in Dáil Éireann[lower-alpha 1] 84 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 62.6% ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 29th Dáil met at Leinster House on Thursday, 6 June to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a new government of Ireland. Bertie Ahern was re-appointed Taoiseach, forming the 26th government of Ireland, a majority coalition government of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2022) |
The general election was significant for a number of reasons:
The most noticeable feature of the election was the collapse in Fine Gael's vote. It suffered its second worst electoral result ever (after the 1948 general election), with several prominent members failing to get re-elected, including:
The party's losses were especially pronounced in Dublin, where just three TDs (Richard Bruton, Gay Mitchell and Olivia Mitchell) were returned, fewer than Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Progressive Democrats or the Greens. The reasons for the drop in support for Fine Gael are many and varied:
In the immediate aftermath of the election, Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan announced his resignation from the leadership and Enda Kenny was chosen as the new leader in the subsequent election.
Party | Fianna Fáil | Fine Gael | Labour Party | Sinn Féin | Progressive Democrats | Green Party | Socialist Party |
Leader | Bertie Ahern | Michael Noonan | Ruairi Quinn | Gerry Adams | Mary Harney | Trevor Sargent | Joe Higgins |
Votes | 41.5%, 770,748 | 22.5%, 417,619 | 10.8%, 200,130 | 6.5%, 121,020 | 4.0%, 73,628 | 3.8%, 71,470 | 0.8%, 14,896 |
Seats | 81 (48.8%) | 31 (18.7%) | 20 (12.7%) | 5 (3.0%) | 8 (4.8%) | 6 (3.6%) | 1 (0.6%) |
81 | 8 | 15 | 31 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
Fianna Fáil | PDs | Inds | Fine Gael | Labour Party | Green Party | Sinn Féin |
Vote Share of different parties in the election.
Election to the 29th Dáil – 17 May 2002[3][4][5] | ||||||||
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Party | Leader | Seats | ± | % of seats |
First pref. votes |
% FPv | ±% | |
Fianna Fáil | Bertie Ahern | 81 | ![]() |
48.8 | 770,748 | 41.5 | ![]() | |
Fine Gael | Michael Noonan | 31 | ![]() |
18.7 | 417,619 | 22.5 | ![]() | |
Labour | Ruairi Quinn | 21[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 1] | ![]() |
12.7 | 200,130 | 10.8 | ![]() | |
Sinn Féin | Gerry Adams | 5 | ![]() |
3.0 | 121,020 | 6.5 | ![]() | |
Progressive Democrats | Mary Harney | 8 | ![]() |
4.8 | 73,628 | 4.0 | ![]() | |
Green | Trevor Sargent | 6 | ![]() |
3.6 | 71,470 | 3.8 | ![]() | |
Socialist Party | Joe Higgins | 1 | ![]() |
0.6 | 14,896 | 0.8 | ![]() | |
Christian Solidarity | 0 | ![]() |
0 | 4,741 | 0.3 | ![]() | ||
Workers' Party | Seán Garland | 0 | ![]() |
0 | 4,012 | 0.2 | ![]() | |
Socialist Workers | N/A | 0 | ![]() |
0 | 3,333 | 0.2 | ![]() | |
Independent | N/A | 13 | ![]() |
7.8 | 176,305 | 9.5 | ![]() | |
Spoilt votes | 20,707 | — | — | |||||
Total | 166 | 0 | 100 | 1,878,609 | 100 | — | ||
Electorate/Turnout | 3,002,173 | 62.6% | — |
Independents include Independent Health Alliance candidates (12,296 votes, 1 seat) and Independent Fianna Fáil (6,124 votes, 1 seat).
Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats formed 26th government of Ireland, a majority coalition government. As of 2022[update] it is the only coalition government in Irish politics to have been returned after a general election.
The following changes took place as a result of the election:
Outgoing TDs are listed in the constituency they contested in the election. For some, such as Marian McGennis, this differs from the constituency they represented in the outgoing Dáil. Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only.
The cross-party seat transfers are summarized thus:
Party | 1997 | 27th Dáil |
Gain from (loss to) | 2002 | ||||||||||||||||
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FF | FG | Lab | SF | PD | Grn | Soc | Ind | |||||||||||||
Fianna Fáil | 77 | (3) | 7 | (1) | 2 | (1) | 81 | |||||||||||||
Fine Gael | 54 | – | (7) | (2) | (1) | (4) | (4) | (5) | 31 | |||||||||||
Labour Party | 21 | – | 2 | (2) | 1 | (1) | 21 | |||||||||||||
Sinn Féin | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
Progressive Democrats | 4 | – | 4 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
Green Party | 2 | – | 4 | 6 | ||||||||||||||||
Socialist Party | 1 | – | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
Independents | 6 | 3 | 1 | (2) | 5 | 1 | (1) | 13 | ||||||||||||
Total | 166 | – | 2 | (9) | 23 | – | 3 | (3) | – | (4) | – | (4) | – | (4) | – | – | 3 | (7) | 166 |
The Dáil election was followed by the election to the 22nd Seanad.
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