AP Explains: Irish elections a study in epic eccentricity
DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland has started counting ballots from Friday's election, but the country might not know the full official results until Monday — and the government won't take shape until next month, if one can be formed.
In Ireland's system of proportional representation, voters get one ballot but can vote for as many listed candidates as they like in order of preference.
Not even the canniest analyst can confidently forecast who wins that fifth seat, because such "winners" may be profoundly unpopular figures who received few No. 1 votes, but eventually scrape together enough lower-level vote transfers to eke out a victory.
In 2002, the government started to purchase 7,500 computerized polling booths but the system aroused a wave of Luddite fears backed by analysts' warnings that the system could be hacked.
Politics buffs complained, in all seriousness, that e-voting would allow the results to come in much too quickly, depriving the nation of a weekend-long fest of savory speculation over who might win that last seat in Galway.
The first "tallies" measuring volumes of No. 1 votes flowing to each candidate are calculated within a few hours of the opening of the first ballot boxes.
The deputy prime minister is the Tanaiste (TAWN-ush-tuh), which technically translates as "nearly the chief."