Elections to
Dáil Éireann, the
house of representatives in the
Oireachtas, are governed by Article 16 of the Constitution. In 1959, the
Fianna Fáil government of
Éamon de Valera put the
Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill to a referendum, which proposed to replace the electoral system of
proportional representation by means of the
single transferable vote (PR-STV) with
first-past-the-post (FPTP). The referendum was defeated by 51.8% to 48.8%, on the same day on which de Valera had won the
presidential election.
John O'Donovan, a former
Fine Gael TD, challenged the
Electoral (Amendment) Act 1959, which had been proposed by a
previous Fianna Fáil government, on the basis that there were "grave inequalities" with "no relevant circumstances to justify" them. In ''O'Donovan v. Attorney-General'' (1961),
Gardner Budd held for the
High Court that the Act was unconstitutional. The court, interpreting the "so far as it is practicable" condition of the Constitution, suggested a 5% variation as the limit without exceptional circumstances. In 1968, the
Fianna Fáil government of
Jack Lynch proposed two constitutional amendments on the electoral system for election to Dáil Éireann: the
Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill, which would have allowed for greater
divergence in the ratio of population to constituencies, and the
Fourth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, a second proposal to introduce FPTP voting in single-member constituencies. The opposition parties
Fine Gael and
Labour Party described the two bills in 1968 as a combined attempt by Fianna Fáil to rig the electoral system in its favour. ==Oireachtas debate==