As history shows, our electoral system ensures scenes of shock, surprise and gruelling endurance at individual counts, even when the overall result seems easy to predict, writes STEPHEN COLLINS, Political Editor

ELECTION COUNTS have always been a blood sport but the television age has turned them into gripping dramas that take place live before our eyes. The image of Michael McDowell, surrounded by jeering Shinners, announcing his decision to quit politics before his count was even over is an enduring memory of the 2007 election.

Older voters will recall the harrowed look on the face of Labour leader Dick Spring as he leaned over the barrier at the count centre in Tralee at 4am, scrutinising every single vote in a marathon 1987 count that he ultimately survived by just four votes.

These cliffhangers can continue long into the night, the next day and sometimes the week after as candidates, election agents and lawyers squabble over every spoiled vote in an effort to change the outcome.

While general elections have had their nerve-shredding moments few counts have rivalled the tension of the crucial Longford South byelection of 1917. It was the first ballot formally contested by Sinn Féin after the Easter Rising of the year before and the party candidate was Joseph McGuinness, who was still in jail. Michael Collins and all the leading republicans at large turned up to canvass for him with the immortal slogan, “Put him in to get him out”.

There was bedlam in Longford on the night of the count when it appeared that the Irish Party candidate, Patrick McKenna (a granduncle of the current Fianna Fáil TD, Peter Kelly), was going to win the seat. The returning officer had actually announced that McKenna had won by 30 votes when Alex McCabe, “a tall, striking figure dressed in a white raincoat and leather leggings, the epitome of the Abbey Theatre’s portrayal of an IRA man, leaped on to the platform”, according to Tim Pat Coogan in his recent memoir. McCabe placed a .45 Webley revolver against the returning officer’s head and suggested that the votes be counted again. Unsurprisingly, some extra Sinn Féin votes were mysteriously found and the result was reversed. Sinn Féin was on its way to the victory in the general election the following year that led to the establishment of the first Dáil.

Guns and high drama were also a feature of the first general election held under proportional representation on the eve of the Civil War in June 1922. Some candidates were shot dead, others intimidated out of running. The election count went ahead in the midst of chaos, but the result provided the foundation stone of the new State.

Violence was still a feature of elections in 1932 when Fianna Fáil came to power for the first time. Patrick Reynolds, the Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Sligo-Leitrim, was shot dead while canvassing and the election in the constituency was deferred while the rest of the country went to the polls. The dead man’s wife, Mary Reynolds, was nominated in his place, and elected. Fianna Fáil won four out of the seven seats in the deferred constituency election and, while it did not give de Valera an overall majority, this was enough to get him elected taoiseach when the Dáil met.

In 1948, when Fianna Fáil lost office after 16 years in power, there was another death of a TD during the campaign that led to a deferred election, this time in Carlow-Kilkenny. The Fine Gael TD Eamonn Coogan, a former deputy Garda commissioner, died suddenly and the constituency poll was postponed for a week. The outcome did not affect the overall result, which saw Fianna Fáil lose power.

By the 1960s disgruntled candidates and parties reached for eminent senior counsel rather than guns when there was a dispute over a result. The count in Longford-Westmeath in 1965 was one of the longest in Irish political history and it had a decisive impact on the ability of Seán Lemass to form a government. The battle for the last seat was between Seán Mac Eoin, a hero of the War of Independence and eminent Fine Gael figure, and Paddy Lenihan, grandfather of the current Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan. At the end of the count Lenihan was ahead by just seven votes. Fine Gael drafted in a team of lawyers, who stayed for a week, scrutinising every vote. Lenihan ultimately triumphed by 13 votes and Mac Eoin lost his seat after 43 years in the Dáil.

“His narrow defeat shows how passing is the glory of the world,” said the kindly Fianna Fáil TD Frank Carter summing up the fate of all those politicians who contest one election too many.

The arrival of television in the 1960s brought the drama of the election count into homes all over the country. One of the most memorable nights on RTÉ was the 1973 election count that saw Fianna Fáil ousted from power after 16 years in power. Journalist Ted Nealon was a star turn, correctly predicting the destination of one seat after another with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the constituencies enabling him to outwit the newly installed RTÉ computer. After the election he produced the first Nealon’s Guide to the Dáil, something that has become an institution in Irish politics.

Since then there have been many memorable count nights on television. The loss of their seats by three senior government ministers dominated the coverage in 1977, while the tussles between Garret FitzGerald and Charles Haughey enthralled viewers during the coverage in the 1980s. There were five close elections during that decade, and Spring’s brush with defeat was just one of many memorable count moments.

The election of 1992 provided one of the great count dramas, on which the fate of the country hung for a week. In the Dublin South Central constituency just one vote separated Ben Briscoe of Fianna Fáil and Eric Byrne of Democratic Left at the end of the 13th and final count. As recount followed recount over succeeding days it became clear that the formation of the next government would depend on the result. The election of Byrne would have enabled Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left to form a rainbow government, but it didn’t happen. Briscoe ended up winning by five votes in the end and Labour went into government with Fianna Fáil. Byrne is a Labour candidate in the same constituency in today’s count.

In 1997 Michael McDowell lost his seat in Dublin South-East by just 27 votes, to John Gormley of the Greens. The final result followed a week-long series of recounts and the summoning of counsel from the Law Library to do battle. The jousts between McDowell and Gormley were the feature of three elections in a row in the constituency.

The election of 2002 was notable for a number of reasons, one of them the meltdown of Fine Gael. A pilot scheme for electronic voting saw the count in three constituencies announced on the night of the election itself. The most dramatic moment was the defeat of former Fine Gael minister Nora Owen, who was shattered to lose her seat without warning. The image of Labour TD Sean Ryan putting his arm around her in comfort was one of the defining moments of that campaign.

As the national count drew to a close that year in the early hours of Sunday, May 19th, Bertie Ahern hopped into his official car for a drive to Co Longford, where he wanted to be present for the result of an election count that would deliver the first overall majority for Fianna Fáil since 1977. He was nearly there when a call came through to tell him that a seat everybody thought Fianna Fáil would win had unexpectedly been lost to Mae Sexton, then of the PDs. He ordered the driver to turn the car round and head home. The dream of an overall majority was gone.

Enda Kenny came within 87 votes of losing his seat to running mate Jim Higgins in 2002 and was only saved by a Fianna Fáil transfer on the eighth count. Tonight it looks as if the glory will belong to Kenny and Fine Gael as Fianna Fáil seats tumble all over the country, but we will only know the full story when the count is complete.