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58-441: The operation of the regional electoral courts is governed by law 4.737 of 1965. Each court consists of judges that are publicly elected or nominated by part of the judiciary, according to rules set independently by each regional court. According to law, the regional courts are responsible for control and inspection of the whole electoral process in their jurisdiction, from the registration of regional branches of political parties, to

116-482: A constituency , riding , or ward , is a subdivision of a larger state (a country , administrative region , or other polity ) created to provide its population with representation in the larger state's legislature . That body, or the state's constitution or a body established for that purpose, determines each district's boundaries and whether each will be represented by a single member or multiple members. Generally, only voters ( constituents ) who reside within

174-535: A candidate can often be elected with the support of only a minority of votes, leaving the majority of votes cast wasted, and thus a moderate winning vote of say just 34 percent repeated in several swing seats can be enough to create a landslide increase in seats won by a government. The district-by-district basis of ' First past the post voting ' elections means that parties will usually categorise and target various districts by whether they are likely to be held with ease, or winnable by extra campaigning, or written off as

232-530: A decision made by the Rainbow Government domestic water charges were abolished on 1 January 1997 placing further pressure on local government funding. The Department of Finance is a significant source of funding at present, and additional sources are rates on commercial and industrial property, housing rents, service charges and borrowing. The dependence on Exchequer has led to charges that Ireland has an overly centralised system of local government. Over

290-411: A foregone loss hardly worth fighting for. A safe seat is one that is regarded as very unlikely to be won by a rival politician based on the constituency 's past voting record or polling results. Conversely, a marginal seat or swing seat is one that could easily swing either way, and may even have changed hands frequently in recent decades - the party that currently holds it may have only won it by

348-446: A low effective number of parties . Malta with only two major parties is a stark example of divergence from Duverger's rule. In a system where the intent is to avoid the waste of votes, a set proportion of votes, as a minimum, assures the election of a candidate. This is set as the inverse of the district magnitude plus one, plus one, the Droop quota . Droop is the mathematical threshold that

406-428: A more pro-active and co-ordinated national and local approach to protecting the environment. An Bord Pleanála was seen as another inroad into local government responsibilities. Additionally, the trend has been to remove decision-making from elected councillors to full-time professionals and officials. In particular, every city and county has a manager, who is the chief executive but is also a public servant appointed by

464-562: A municipality. However, in the Republic of Ireland , voting districts are called local electoral areas . District magnitude is a term invented by the American political scientist Douglas W. Rae in his 1967 dissertation The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws . It refers to the number of seats assigned to each district, and thus helping determine the number of seats to be filled in any election. Staggered terms are sometimes used to reduce

522-487: A particular group has a slight majority, for instance, gerrymandering politicians can obtain 2/3 of that district's seats. Similarly, by making four-member districts in regions where the same group has slightly less than a majority, gerrymandering politicians can still secure exactly half of the seats. However, any possible gerrymandering that theoretically could occur would be much less effective because minority groups can still elect at least one representative if they make up

580-609: A popular vote. While the Limerick plebiscite passed by a small margin, voters in Waterford and Cork both rejected the proposal by equally small margins in 2019. The 2024 Limerick mayoral election took place in June 2024, with John Moran , an independent candidate being inaugurated as the first directly elected mayor in Ireland on 21 June 2024. Eurostat , the statistical Directorate-General of

638-428: A significant percentage of the population (e.g. 20–25%), compared to single-member districts where 40–49% of the voters can be essentially shut out from any representation. Sometimes, particularly under non-proportional or winner-takes-all voting systems, elections can be prone to landslide victories . As the result in each district is not related to votes cast elsewhere and may not reflect a party's national popularity,

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696-880: A significant presence in an area. Many assemblies allow free postage (through franking privilege or prepaid envelopes) from a representative to a constituent, and often free telecommunications. Caseworkers may be employed by representatives to assist constituents with problems. Members of the U.S. Congress (both Representatives and Senators) working in Washington, D.C., have a governmentally staffed district office to aid in constituent services. Many state legislatures have followed suit. Likewise, British MPs use their Parliamentary staffing allowance to appoint staff for constituency casework. Client politics and pork barrel politics are associated with constituency work. In some elected assemblies, some or all constituencies may group voters based on some criterion other than, or in addition to,

754-653: A single tier of town council, with five permitted to retain the title of borough council: the city of Kilkenny and the four towns of Sligo , Drogheda , Clonmel , and Wexford . The Local Government Reform Act 2014 enacted changes which took effect after the 2014 local elections: The civic and ceremonial status of existing cities, boroughs and larger towns was retained after being merged with counties. Those municipal districts that included existing cities or boroughs merged became either "metropolitan districts" or "borough districts". They continue to have mayors as do those districts containing county towns. In all other councils

812-517: A slender margin and a party that wants to win it may be able to take it away from its present holder with little effort. In United Kingdom general elections and United States presidential and congressional elections, the voting in a relatively small number of swing seats usually determines the outcome of the entire election. Parties aspire to hold as many safe seats as possible, and high-level politicians, such as prime ministers, prefer to stand in safe seats. In large multi-party systems like India ,

870-522: A small shift in election results, sometimes caused by swing votes, can lead to no party taking a majority of seats, causing a hung assembly . This may arise from a significant number of seats going to smaller regional parties instead of the larger national parties which are the main competitors at the national or state level, as was the situation in the Lok Sabha (Lower house of the Parliament of India ) during

928-562: Is a strategic planning area. Below this are local administrative units (LAUs) which are the basic statistical components for the regions; in Ireland these are the local electoral areas (LEAs). Following the abolition of domestic property rates in the late 1970s, local councils found it extremely difficult to raise money. The shortfall from the abolition of property rates led to the introduction of service charges for water and refuse, but these were highly unpopular in certain areas and led in certain cases to large-scale non-payment. Arising from

986-673: Is allowed to affect apportionment, with rural areas with sparse populations allocated more seats per elector: for example in Iceland, the Falkland Islands, Scottish islands, and (partly) in US Senate elections. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral district boundaries for political gain. By creating a few "forfeit" districts where opposing candidates win overwhelmingly, gerrymandering politicians can manufacture more, but narrower, wins for themselves and their party. Gerrymandering relies on

1044-491: Is composed of the members of the council, elected by universal franchise in local elections every five years from multi-seat local electoral areas using the single transferable vote . Many of the authorities' statutory functions are, however, the responsibility of ministerially appointed career officials termed Chief executives . The competencies of the city and county councils include planning, transport infrastructure, sanitary services, public safety (notably fire services) and

1102-537: Is minimal (exactly 1) in plurality voting in single-member districts ( First-past-the-post voting used in most cases). As well, where multi-member districts are used, threshold de facto stays high if seats are filled by general ticket or other pro-landslide party block system (rarely used nationwide nowadays). In such situations each voter has one vote. District magnitude is larger than 1 where multiple members are elected - plural districts ), and under plurality block voting (where voter may cast as many votes as

1160-404: Is not synonymous with proportional representation. The use of "general ticket voting" prevents the multiple-member representation of the district from being mixed and balanced. Where list PR is used in the district, a closed list PR method gives the party machine, not the voters, the power to arrange the candidates on the party list. In this case, a large district magnitude helps minorities only if

1218-425: Is the mathematical minimum whereby no more will be elected than there are seats to be filled. It ensures election in contests where all votes are used to elect someone. (Probabilistic threshold should include the likely number of votes wasted to minor lists). For instance, a 10%-polling party will not win a seat in a 5-member district (Droop quota of 1/6=16.67%) but will do so in a 10-member district as its 10 percent of

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1276-648: The Cantonal Council of Zürich are reapportioned in every election based on the number of votes cast in each district , which is only made possible by use of multi-member districts, and the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina , by contrast, is apportioned without regard to population; the three major ethnic groups – Bosniaks , Serbs , and Croats – each get exactly five members. Malapportionment occurs when voters are under- or over-represented due to variation in district population. In some places, geographical area

1334-588: The European Union , uses a geographical hierarchy system called the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) for various statistical and financial disbursement purposes. The entirety of Ireland is a First-level NUTS of the European Union . The Second level (NUTS 2) divides Ireland into three regions which have a Regional Assembly. The Third level (NUTS 3) divides these regions into 8, each of which

1392-485: The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 . This Act established a county council for each of thirty-three Irish administrative counties (County Tipperary was divided with North Riding and South Riding ) and a county borough corporation in six cities that were separate from their respective counties. Each county was divided into urban and rural districts . Urban districts in the area of five municipal boroughs retained

1450-623: The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) in this way in the elections in October 2012 . Local government in the Republic of Ireland The functions of local government in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-one local authorities, termed County, City, or City and County Councils. The principal decision-making body in each of the thirty-one local authorities

1508-405: The barony and grand jury , no longer fulfil their original purpose while retaining only vestigial legal relevance in the modern state. Others, such as the poor law unions , have been transformed into entities still in use by the modern state, but again, their original functions have been substantially altered. Sixty years later, a more radical reorganisation of local government took place with

1566-408: The borough of Dún Laoghaire were abolished with their administrative areas being divided among three new counties: Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown , Fingal and South Dublin . The state was divided into eight Regional Authorities. The Local Government Act 2001 simplified the local government structure, with the principal tier of local government (county and city councils) covering the entire territory of

1624-439: The wasted-vote effect , effectively concentrating wasted votes among opponents while minimizing wasted votes among supporters. Consequently, gerrymandering is typically done under voting systems using single-member districts, which have more wasted votes. While much more difficult, gerrymandering can also be done under proportional-voting systems when districts elect very few seats. By making three-member districts in regions where

1682-404: The 1990s. Elected representatives may spend much of the time serving the needs or demands of individual constituents , meaning either voters or residents of their district. This is more common in assemblies with many single-member or small districts than those with fewer, larger districts. In a looser sense, corporations and other such organizations can be referred to as constituents, if they have

1740-555: The National Roads Authority took overall authority for national roads projects, supported by local authorities who maintain the non-national roads system. The whole area of waste management has been transformed since the 1990s, with a greater emphasis on environmental protection, recycling infrastructure and higher environmental standards. In 1993 the Environmental Protection Agency was established to underpin

1798-655: The Non Principle Private Residence (NPPR) charge and the proposed water charge. Since 1999, motor tax is paid into the Local Government Fund, established by the Local Government Act 1998, and is distributed on a "Needs and Resources" basis. In 2013, a local property tax was introduced to provide funding for local authorities. Local government has progressively lost control over services to national and regional bodies, particularly since

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1856-949: The Public Appointments Service (formerly the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission), and is thus answerable to the national government as well as the local council, in theory. Therefore, local policy decisions are sometimes heavily influenced by the TDs who represent the local constituency in Dáil Éireann (the main chamber of parliament), and may be dictated by national politics rather than local needs. Local government bodies now have responsibility for such matters as planning, local roads, sanitation, and libraries. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has responsibility for local authorities and related services. Fingal County Manager David O'Connor: "Local Authorities perform both

1914-414: The district are permitted to vote in an election held there. District representatives may be elected by a first-past-the-post system, a proportional representative system, or another voting method . They may be selected by a direct election under universal suffrage , an indirect election , or another form of suffrage . The names for electoral districts vary across countries and, occasionally, for

1972-1027: The electorate or where relatively few members overall are elected, even if the election is held at-large. District magnitude may be set at an equal number of seats in each district. Examples include: all districts of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected 6 members (5 members since 2017); all those of the Parliament of Malta send 5 MPs; Chile, between 1989 and 2013, used a method called binomial voting , which assigned 2 MPs to each district. In many cases, however, multi-member constituencies correspond to already existing jurisdictions (regions, districts, wards, cities, counties, states or provinces), which creates differences in district magnitude from district to district: The concept of district magnitude helps explains why Duverger's speculated correlation between proportional representation and party system fragmentation has many counter-examples, as PR methods combined with small-sized multi-member constituencies may produce

2030-480: The equivalent office is known as Chair or Cathaoirleach. Each municipal district was issued with a new statutory charter setting out its powers alongside any historic charters that already existed. At the 2019 Limerick City and County Council election , voters approved a proposal in a plebiscite on the establishment of a directly elected mayor for Limerick City and County by a vote of 52.4%. Support for directly elected mayors has been almost equally divided when put to

2088-512: The first time in Ireland in a new Article 28A. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 changed the structure by the abolition of all town councils and the merger of certain county councils. The reforms came into effect in 2014, to coincide with that year's local elections . The county was a unit of judicial and administrative government introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion . The country

2146-507: The foundation of the state in 1922. For instance, local control of education has largely been passed to Education and Training Boards , while other bodies such as the Department of Education still hold significant powers. In 1970 local government lost its health remit, which had been already eroded by the creation of the Department of Health in 1947, to the Health Board system. In the 1990s

2204-459: The legislature. When referring to a particular legislative constituency, it is simply referred to as "Kṣetra" along with the name of the legislature, in Hindi (e.g. 'Lok Sabha Kshetra' for a Lok Sabha constituency). Electoral districts for buli municipal or other local bodies are called "wards". Local electoral districts are sometimes called wards , a term also used for administrative subdivisions of

2262-521: The location they live. Examples include: Not all democratic political systems use separate districts or other electoral subdivisions to conduct elections. Israel , for instance, conducts parliamentary elections as a single district. The 26 electoral districts in Italy and the 20 in the Netherlands have a role in the actual election, but no role whatsoever in the division of the seats. Ukraine elected half of

2320-447: The make-up of the district map, made easier by a multitude of micro-small districts. A higher magnitude means less wasted votes, and less room for such maneuvers. As well, a fair voting system in the district contests also means that gerrymandering is ineffective because each party gets their fair share of seats however districts are drawn, at least theoretically. Multiple-member contests sometimes use plurality block voting , which allows

2378-541: The number of representatives allotted to each. Israel and the Netherlands are among the few countries that avoid the need for apportionment entirely by electing legislators at-large . Apportionment is generally done on the basis of population . Seats in the United States House of Representatives , for instance, are reapportioned to individual states every 10 years following a census, with some states that have grown in population gaining seats. By contrast, seats in

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2436-486: The number of seats to be filled), proportional representation or single transferable vote elections (where the voter casts just one vote). In STV elections DM normally range from 2 to 10 members in a district. But 21 are elected in a single contest conducted through STV in New South Wales (Australia). In list PR systems DM may exceed 100. District magnitude is maximized where: DM is moderate where districts break up

2494-583: The number of seats up for election at any one time, when district magnitude is more than one. The number of seats up for election varies the ease or difficulty to be elected, as the threshold de facto decreases in proportion as the number of seats being filled increases, unless a pro-landslide voting system is used such as general ticket voting. The concept of magnitude explains Duverger's observation that single-winner contests tend to produce two-party systems , and proportional representation (PR) methods tend to produce multi-party systems . District magnitude

2552-518: The office being elected. The term constituency is commonly used to refer to an electoral district, especially in British English , but it can also refer to the body of eligible voters or all the residents of the represented area or only those who voted for a certain candidate. The terms (election) precinct and election district are more common in American English . In Canadian English ,

2610-504: The party machine of any party chooses to include them. In a multi-member district where general ticket voting is not used, there is a natural impetus for a party to open itself to minority voters, if they have enough numbers to be significant, due to the competitive environment produced by the electoral system. Apportionment is the process of allocating a number of representatives to different regions, such as states or provinces. Apportionment changes are often accompanied by redistricting ,

2668-583: The past three decades numerous studies carried out by consultants on behalf of the Government have recommended the reintroduction of some form of local taxation/charging regime, but these were generally seen as politically unacceptable. However, in 2012 the Local Government Management Agency was established to provide a central data management service to enable the collection of the Home Charge,

2726-576: The production of reports and electoral maps during vote counting. The regional courts are responsible for voter registration, for constitution of electoral districts and for reporting the results. The regional courts also settle disputes regarding elections and handle appeals of the decisions of the electoral judges. Each regional court has the freedom to make their own rules with regard to how these things are handled. STJ TSE TST STM Electoral districts An electoral ( congressional , legislative , etc.) district , sometimes called

2784-603: The provision of public libraries. Each local authority sends representatives to one of three Regional Assemblies . Local government in the state is governed by Local Government Acts 1925 to 2024, the principal act of which is the Local Government Act 2001 . The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 is the founding document of the present system. The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1999) provided for constitutional recognition of local government for

2842-461: The redrawing of electoral district boundaries to accommodate the new number of representatives. This redrawing is necessary under single-member district systems, as each new representative requires their own district. Multi-member systems, however, vary depending on other rules. Ireland, for example, redraws its electoral districts after every census while Belgium uses its existing administrative boundaries for electoral districts and instead modifies

2900-442: The representation of minorities. John Stuart Mill had endorsed proportional representation (PR) and STV in the mid-19th century precisely to respond to this shortcoming. With lower district magnitudes, the only way to include demographic minorities scattered across the country is to force parties to include them: Large district magnitudes increase the chance for diverse walks of life and minority groups to be elected. However, it

2958-437: The rules permit voters not to rank all the candidates or prevent them from ranking all the candidates, some votes are declared exhausted. Thus it is common for one or two members in a district to be elected without attaining Droop. Larger district magnitudes means larger districts, so annihilate the need and practice of gerrymandering , Gerrymandering is the practice of partisan redistricting by means of creating imbalances in

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3016-463: The single largest group to take all the district seats. Each voter having just one vote in a multi-member district, Single voting, a component of most party-list proportional representation methods as well as single non-transferable vote and single transferable vote , prevents such a landslide. High district magnitude is a major factor in the inclusion of minorities . Plurality (and other elections with lower district magnitudes) are known to limit

3074-493: The state and having general responsibility for all functions of local government except in 80 towns within the territory of county councils, where the lower tier ( town councils ) existed with more limited functions. The five county boroughs of Dublin , Cork , Galway , Waterford , and Limerick were re-styled city councils, with the same status in law as county councils. The lower-level tiers of borough corporations, urban district councils and town commissioners were reduced to

3132-790: The style and title of a borough with a corporation. In all other places, a district council was established. Smaller towns retained town commissioners within rural districts. The geographic remit of the Irish Free State , established in December 1922 pursuant to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, was confined to 26 of the traditional counties of Ireland, which included 27 administrative counties and four county boroughs . Rural districts were abolished everywhere except County Dublin in 1925, and in County Dublin in 1930. In 1994 County Dublin and

3190-466: The term electorate generally refers specifically to the body of voters. In India , electoral districts are referred to as " Nirvācan Kṣetra " ( Hindi : निर्वाचन क्षेत्र ) in Hindi , which can be translated to English as "electoral area" though the official English translation for the term is "constituency". The term "Nirvācan Kṣetra" is used while referring to an electoral district in general irrespective of

3248-463: The term is used, especially officially, but is also colloquially and more commonly known as a riding or constituency . In some parts of Canada, constituency is used for provincial districts and riding for federal districts. In colloquial Canadian French , they are called comtés ("counties"), while circonscriptions comtés is the legal term. In Australia and New Zealand , Electoral districts are called electorates , however elsewhere

3306-513: The vote exceeds the Droop quota in such a district (1/11=9%). In systems where a noticeable number of votes are wasted, such as Single non-transferable voting or Instant-runoff voting where transferable votes are used but voters are prohibited from ranking all candidates, you will see candidates win with less than Droop. STV is intended to avoid waste of votes by the use of transferable votes but even in STV, if

3364-444: Was shired in a number of phases with County Wicklow being the last to be shired in 1625. County Tipperary was divided into two judicial counties (or ridings ) following the establishment of assize courts in 1838. At various times in the past, other entities at a level below that of the county or county borough have been employed in Ireland for various judicial, administrative and revenue collecting purposes. Some of these, such as

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