What happens after a deadlocked election result?

I have no intention of revisiting the topic of the previous post in terms of possible coalition partners.  Rather I would like to focus on the mechanics or 'modalities' of government formation.  In majoritarian, two-party systems there is no problem.  The electorate decides the winner and the loser.  In countries where no single party controls a majority of seats the situation is more complex and there can be a number of different outcomes.  In some European countries this post-election uncertainty can drag on for weeks, even months.  This hasn't happened in Ireland but, as we now have a multi-party system and coalition politics are now the norm, it could happen some day. 

We have no regulations or accepted written procedures to deal with potential deadlock.  The Constitution, Bunreacht na h-Éireann, simply states "The President shall, on the nomination of Dáil Éireann, appoint the Taoiseach, that is, the head of the Government or Prime Minister" (Article 13.1.1).  So the Dáil elects a taoiseach and and everything else follows.  Ireland is unusual in this regard in that every other parliamentary democracy that I can think of the head of state, monarch or president, asks somebody to form a government and only then is a vote taken by the legislature.  Why are we so different?

The 1937 constitution simply replicates the provision in the 1922 Irish Free State Constitution which simply states that "The President of the [Executive] Council shall be appointed on the nomination of Dáil Éireann" (Article 53).  That particular article was put in, I believe, to ensure that the Governor General, the King's representative in his Irish dominion, would have no role in the formation of an Irish government.  For decades there was no problem as most of the time Fianna Fáil had a majority or near enough to form a government, or else, on the odd occasion, all the other parties would combine together to form a coalition. 

The fact that Fianna Fáil now needs coalition partners complicates this picture and it is possible that real deadlock could occur some time in the future and the Dáil could simply fail to nominate a taoiseach.  There ought to be a better way than dissolving the Dáil and calling another election.  In multi-party systems the government is formed through bargaining between the various parties. In most democracies, the Head of State facilitates these negotiations by selecting a “formateur”: a party leader who is charged with reporting back a putative government to the Head of State within some fixed period. In some countries, such as Belgium, the Head of State selects the (first) formateur before inter-party negotiations start; in other countries, such as Italy, the Head of State waits until a winning coalition of parties have agreed to negotiate over government policy and the allocation of portfolios.

Here's how it is done in Holland:

When the election results have been announced, the Queen consults the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament, the Vice President of the Council of State and all leaders of the parliamentary parties represented in the Lower House. The Queen then appoints one or more senior political figures (informateurs) to investigate the possibilities of forming a new government with adequate support in the Lower House as quickly as possible. The informateur consults the leaders of the parliamentary parties in order to determine which of them could form a coalition government together. Once the likeliest combination has been identified the informateur meets the parliamentary parties involved to negotiate on the prospective governments policy programme and the distribution of government posts. Alternatively, the informateur may resign his mandate, in which case the Queen approaches one or more new informateurs.

The informateur reports back to the Queen as soon as it is clear the coalition partners are genuinely willing to work together. The informateurs report contains the draft coalition agreement and a recommended formateur (usually the prospective prime minister).

The Queen then appoints a formateur with instructions to form a government. The formateur requests permission to consider the mandate, and begins the task of approaching prospective ministers and state secretaries. Once it is complete, the new ministerial team meets for joint consultations in an inaugural meeting where the coalition agreement is signed. The formateur then presents his final report to the Queen. This report states that he accepts his mandate and lists the ministers and state secretaries willing to form the new government. The Queen then signs the Royal Decrees accepting the outgoing governments resignation and appointing the new team.

We may not need anything quite as convoluted as that but some thought should be given to ways that might formalise some sort of inter-party negotiations in the event of an inconclusive result.  In Ireland we now have a continental type multi-party system but we still have some habits, ways of thinking and practices that are more befitting the Westminster system that was partially grafted onto both the 1922 and 1937 constitutions. 

 

Comments

[WorldbyStorm]

Actually, I'm thinking something fairly similar has happened here. In 1992 the election was held in late November. The first assembly of TDs was on Jan 5th 93 and the Taoiseach wasn't elected until the 12th. IIRC wasn't the delay in part over FG accepting DL as a member of government, which they eventually refused to do. Granted the Christmas break intervened so in some respects it didn't seem as long, but it still dragged on for the best part of six weeks. I think though your point is very valid. There does seem to be some ambiguity, perhaps the Constitution didn't want to seem to add any extra dynamic to the opinion of the electorate, i.e. by forcing parties to coalesce in coalitions?

[Gerry]

Jim Duffy, who has an obsessive interest in what monarchs and presidents get up to, dealt with this in Saturday's Irish Times. I think the framers of the 1922 constitution had a Westminster -centred view of politics and probably never even considered coalitions.