Ruling Irish Party Suffers Key Losses
Prime Minister Charles Haughey’s Fianna Fail Party suffered significant losses in town hall balloting last week but finished with the most votes, according to results released Sunday.
Fianna Fail saw its share of the vote in Thursday’s election fall 9 percentage points to 38% from the last town hall elections in 1985.
The party won 358 seats across the country, 79 fewer than in 1985. It lost control of Dublin’s key City Council, where no party finished with a majority.
Haughey, 66, denied the results were a rejection of his government’s policies, saying the election had been fought on local issues “and strong personalities.”
About 3,600 candidates competed for 883 seats on 34 city and county councils. Major issues included local service charges for garbage collection, water supply and the state of roads.
The leading opposition party, Fine Gael, got 26% of the votes nationwide. It won 270 seats, or 13 fewer than in 1985.
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