Madam, – Once again the myth that Fianna Fáil won the last election is being perpetuated (Michael Marsh, Opinion, December 29th). I dispute this. What it did was to lose the election but win the vote in the Dáil. To me, this is a very important distinction.
Fianna Fáil is in government primarily because of support from the Green Party. However, if one looks at the pattern of vote transfers from eliminated Green candidates it can be seen that voters wanted Fianna Fáil out of government. While the actual vote used to elect a candidate is the only thing that carries legal weight, political or moral weight should attach to how the electorate want their votes transferred. In the event that no party has an overall majority, cognisance of this should be taken into account by political parties when deciding who to support in the Dáil vote on formation of a government.
The current Government is a coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Green party. An analysis of the results of the last election shows that the transfer of votes from eliminated Green candidates to Fianna Fáil was a mere 14 per cent. Can we deduce from this that the other 86 per cent did not want Fianna Fáil in government? I believe that the people who voted for the Green Party overwhelmingly voted against Fianna Fáil. The Green Party clearly does not have a mandate from the electorate who voted for them to be in government with Fianna Fáil.
Overall, excluding those whose first preference was for a Fianna Fáil candidate, the transfers to Fianna Fáil were just 18 per cent. The results of the analysis indicate the preferred option of the majority was for a Fine Gael and Labour coalition.
The majority of the electorate wanted Fianna Fáil out of government but were thwarted by Green Party politicians for perceived party advantage. I suggest that at the next election the Greens will find that winning a place in government was a pyrrhic victory. – Yours, etc,