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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has confirmed that the date of the election will be 8 February, setting up a historic Saturday polling day.
For the last few days, there had been furious speculation about when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar would call an election.
Now, with the date of 8 February confirmed, campaigning will begin in earnest.
The date is doubly significant, because this will be the first Saturday election since 1918, one of the key elections in Irish history.
The 1918 election was a crucial moment in Irish history and saw over 70 representatives reject Westminster and set up a parliament in Dublin.
Elected representatives, such as Countess Markievicz, Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera, were among those Sinn Féin MPs to set up the first Dáil after the vote on Saturday 14 December 1918.
The election signalled an enormous leap for the party, almost wiping out the Irish Parliamentary Party which had been the dominant voice in Irish politics for decades.
Referendums
There is a more recent precedent for referendums to be held on Saturdays. The Nice referendum in 2002 was held on a Saturday, as was the Children’s Referendum in 2012.
However, traditionally polling day in Ireland has been on a weekday.
Christina Finn / TwitterI told this is to ensure families don’t have to take a days annual leave because the schools are closed and organise childcare
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) January 14, 2020
Precedent was broken in 2001 when a by-election took place on a Saturday.
Varadkar had said on Sunday he has “made a decision” on the calling of an election but added that he won’t make it public yet, wanting to first speak to his Cabinet and to opposition leaders.
Some posters have already been seen erected with Sinn Féin councillor Paul Donnelly tweeting pictures showing posters for Varadkar up in Castleknock.
Turnout
Questions will now turn to how the weekend polling day will affect voter turnout.
TheJournal.ie understands that the Saturday date was selected so that families don’t need to take time off work to look after children if schools – often used as polling stations – are closed.
While there is little evidence to predict how turnout will be impacted by a weekend date, Maynooth University elections expert Adrian Kavanagh told TheJournal.ie that the Saturday date for a 2001 by-election, which took place in Tipperary South, had little impact on turnout.
Indeed, turnout was actually higher in the 2001 by-election than a by-election in the same constituency the year before, which was held on a Thursday.
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It’s such an obviously good idea that it’s hard to understand why it has taken until now
@donnchawishyourgirlfriendwashotlikeme: I take it you don’t work on a Saturday then??
@donnchawishyourgirlfriendwashotlikeme: cos they don’t want the students to vote. That’s why I always thought they avoided weekend ballots anyway.
@devils avacado: I work every second Saturday including on that date.
@devils avacado: Do you think there’s more people working on a Saturday than there is on any given week day? That’s naive if so, but also irrelevant as the polls are open for 15 hours on an election day.
@JC: so if the poles are open for 15 hours does that not make whatever day the election is on irrelevant?? :)
@devils avacado: this way schools dont have to close and people dont have to arrange child minders so it makes perfect sence.
@donnchawishyourgirlfriendwashotlikeme: but teachers won’t be happy
@devils avacado: it does. If you are away working 15 hours or 100 hours makes no difference. Sat is better when good chance you are at home for weekend
Excellent, no school closures to try and navigate. Saturday is a great idea
Nice one. Get out and vote.
@Clifford Brennan: Saturday vote is designed to increase the green vote with students at home, FG/FF will do anything to try and stop a SF government.
@Still-Not-News: Strange thing to say. Picking a day where hopefully more people can cast a vote than usual will be detrimental to SFs electoral prospects?
@Clifford Brennan: We should all go out and use our democratic votes,no matter who we vote for,I agree with you!
At the moment though there are thousands who will be denied that democratic right as General Election is on before Feb 15th!
So will Government use their power to request Local Authorities to automatically transfer all new 2019/2020 registrations onto the supplementary register so they can vote on February 8th?The optics will be bad if the Government doesn’t do this and thousands of voters denied their democratic right to vote!
@Still-Not-News: And rightly so.
But, there’d never be a SF government anyway, they’d need a coalition and nobody will talk to them. Nobody, not just FF/FG, want them in power.
@Clifford Brennan: SF’s core vote won’t be affected by the day of the week it’s held on.
@Bernard Sweeney: In a Democracy it’s the people who decide the make up of the Dail.
SF was the 3rd largest political party elected in 2016 so why were they excluded by both FG&FF parties at that time?You might rightly argue that FF&FG got the most votes(even though FF lost 26 votes!) so why didn’t they form an official FG/FF Majority Government?
@Bernard Sweeney: ” there’d never be a SF government” You sounds worried by the prospect of change,a future country for the many, not the few like you.(that even rhyme)
@Still-Not-News: But you’re worried students won’t vote for SF and believe it’s a ploy by FG & FF. Who is worried here?
@Still-Not-News: Jesus, SF’s “nationalists” are now just copying the political slogans of British political parties. And not even successful British political parties, they appear to be trying to commandeer a slogan that saw its original authors witness their worst election result in their post war history. And even then, it is the “many” who do not vote SF and only the “few” that do.
@Still-Not-News: how can it be the many if the majority vote for FF or FG? nobody is afraid of change but what do you really think will happen in this coming election? its an over simplification of politics and society in general.
@Still-Not-News: I don’t belive FF or FG are worried by a fantasy, believed in only by Sinn Fein. Neither FF or FG will partner SF in government so ergo will not be in government.
the 1918 election was a UK election to Westminster. This is the first Saturday Irish election in the history of the state.
Don’t vote for the best candidate…vote for the one who will do the least harm !
@CJ Stewart: That is by definition the best candidate.
Dissolving the Dáil is a splendid idea, but do we have enough caustic soda?
Good time now for local busy bodies to run. It’s the best way to secure a brass plate pension for such a short term. Other mortals would have to pay about 3000 euro a month for 30 years to get what they receive after quitting
Hopefully a sinn féin landslide victory as in 1918. We have had 100 years of misrule from FF/FG and it is time for a new start. Make sure you are registered to ❎ and get rid of FG/FF dominance and corruption.
@Keith Mac Suibhne: SF in 1918 were FF/FG though. You seem to be contradicting yourself.
@Keith Mac Suibhne: Why should we register to be Scottish?
@Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh: your ancestors were Scottish weren’t they.
@Clifford Brennan: Fine Gael was founded in 1933 by Cumann na nGaedheal (who split from Sinn Féin in 1923), the National Centre Party and the fascist National Guard.
Fianna Fáil was founded in 1926 (it split from Sinn Féin the same year)De Valera for years tried to de-legitimatize and cast doubts over Sinn Féin’s existence. In the 1940s he got the judge he appointed to rule that Sinn Féin was not the legal successor to the Sinn Féin of 1905 so that De Valera could seize their funds.
After the split in 1970, one could argue that the Workers Party forfeited their contested claim to Sinn Féin when they dropped the name not too long after.
Sinn Féin still exists today and its leader is Mary Lou McDonald, and it is a registered political party on the entire island of Ireland that contests all elections that takes place on it. The same cannot be said for FF/FG.
@Shauna Cochrane: Do you honestly believe McDonald is the rightful heir of Griffith? Go on, I need a good laugh…
@Shauna Cochrane: “Sinn Féin still exists today …………. The same cannot be said for FF/FG”
It doesn’t need to be. We’re having an election here that concerns 26 counties and not 32. Until we have 32 then it doesn’t matter what FF/FG do in the north.
@Keith Mac Suibhne: a landslide won’t return SF as the majority sole power party though. You’d still need FF or FG and neither of them will do business with you so we’re still going to have FF or FG (most likely) as the largest party that will probably form a government with the Greens.
@Shauna Cochrane: Shauna, (Provisional) Sinn Fein doesn’t make any claim to be related to the party of the same name founded by the monarchist, Arthur Griffith, as they know full well that such a claim would be false.
Fine Gael’s analysts would have looked at a Thursday or Friday election but opted for a Saturday election – completely unknown territory. Leo is sh!tting bricks.
@Ned Flanders: No he isn’t, we all know that we’ll get more of the same and FG will be returned as the biggest party.
@Bernard Sweeney: I respectfully disagree Bernard :)
@Bernard Sweeney: i wouldnt be so sure – a lot of people can see that most govt departments need overhaul and reform and FG have been in driving seat 8 years and failed to take tough decisions – the public sector is bloated and inefficient- health , housing , criminal justice – all need overhaul – they may get to cobble together another BS supply agreement but people are gonna send a signal that they are not happy having a ” crisis” that lasts 10 years like health and homeless – they just didnt do enough to change – someone else needs to try
@Dave Hammond: I’m not saying any of that isn’t the case but we had the same chance in 2016 and we got what we got. We, as a nation, have always voted FG/FF into government. That’s not going to change next month.
Same result would be nice!
@Ebeneezer Goode: You’d need it to be the same party for it to be nice for you. It isn’t.
Politician: We’re need more diversity.
Voter: But I have only one vote
Get out and make a change. Even a real minority partner with new ideas would be a huge change.
Have to do the shopping on Friday so
Love Leo’s alternative slogan “live on old horse and you’ll eat grass “!!
im not happy at date as we travel to Armagh to football league game
This smacks of FG banking on the student vote. Students are notoriously socialist in their ideals. Only party winning with this date is Labour or Sinn Féin.
Why not Sunday’s as a standard practice, when most people are at home & not occupationally engaged. No school closures needed, & regular jobs of monitoring personnel not disrupted.
Should facilitate higher turn outs.
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