Sinn Féin’s twin failure in Irish by-elections puts pressure on party’s leader
In the Galway West contest, votes were still being counted in Ireland’s complex electoral system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and requires multiple rounds of counting to determine the winner. The outcome isn’t expected until Sunday, but it’s already clear that Sinn Féin’s candidate there faces certain elimination.
“It’s a bad day for Sinn Féin because, as the main opposition party, it should be leading and winning these seats,” said Eoin O’Malley, a politics professor at Dublin City University.
Sinn Féin’s loss in Dublin provided a tactical gain for the Social Democrats, a youthful breakaway from Ireland’s traditional party of the unionized left, Labour. Ennis’ victory means the SocDems, as they’re known, have overtaken Labour in parliamentary numbers — and made them second only to Sinn Féin on the opposition benches.
Ennis, a former League of Ireland soccer player, differentiated himself on the campaign trail with outspoken criticism of candidates seeking to stoke up anti-immigrant sentiment. That included Hutch, who called for Somali immigrants to be interned without trial in a former army base.
“We believe in the politics of decency, hope and inclusion,” Ennis said. “People want change, but they want positive change.”
