REPUBLIC OF IRELAND DAIL EIREANN ELECTIONS OF 6 JUNE 1997 ==================================================================== PARTIES ==================================================================== Irish and English are the official languages of Ireland, though only a small minority speak Irish. Most parties have both Irish and English names. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein are usually known by their Irish names, the other (newer) parties by their English names. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Comhaontas Glas / Green Alliance (Greens) Dan Pairti Daonlathach / Progressive Democrats (liberals) Daonlathach Cli / Democratic Left (socialists) Fianna Fail / Soldiers of Destiny (Catholic nationalists) Fine Gael / Sons of Ireland (Christian democrats) Pairti Lucht Oibre / Labour Party (social democrats) Sinn Fein / Ourselves Alone (extreme nationalists) -------------------------------------------------------------------- NATIONAL SUMMARY ==================================================================== Comparisons are with the 1992 elections. The Dail was enlarged by one seat at the 1997 elections. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Party votes % change Seats -------------------------------------------------------------------- Democratic Left 44,901 02.5 (-00.3) 4 Fianna Fail 703,688 39.3 (+00.2) 77 (+09) Fine Gael 499,940 27.9 (+03.4) 54 (+09) Green Alliance 49,323 02.8 (+01.4) 2 (+01) Labour Party 186,045 10.4 (-08.9) 17 (-16) Progressive Democrat 83,765 04.7 ( 00.0) 4 (-06) Sinn Fein 45,614 02.5 (+00.9) 1 (+01) Others 175,721 09.8 (+03.2) 7 (+03) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 1,788,997 166 (+01) -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Fianna Fail / Progressive Democrat coalition government thus has 81 seats to the combined opposition's 85, but is generally supported by most of the independent members. VOTES AND SEATS BY ELECTORATE ==================================================================== The electorates are based on the historic Irish counties, with some of the smaller counties grouped together and some of the more populous counties subdivided. Voting is preferential but only the first preference votes are shown here. Minor party candidates polling less than 2% have been aggregated as "others." Sitting members are indicated with an asterisk.