electionstracker

Ireland February 1982 general election

What was the result of the February 1982 general election in Ireland?

Fianna Fáil won 81 of 166 seats with 47.3% of the vote. 73.8% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Ireland
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Fianna Fáil won 81 of 166 seats with 47.3% of the vote; 73.8% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 2.4 points on 1981.

  • Fianna Fáil 81 +3 seats 47.3% +2.0 points
  • Fine Gael 63 −2 seats 37.3% +0.8 points
  • Labour Party 15 0 seats 9.1% −0.8 points
  • Workers' Party 3 +2 seats 2.3% +0.6 points
  • Sinn Féin 0 1.0%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Ireland 1981 general election, party by party.

84 of 166 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 47.3%

    Share of the vote won by Fianna Fáil

    Fianna Fáil won 81 of 166 seats. A majority needs 84.

  2. +3 seats

    Seats gained by Fianna Fáil

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1981. Fine Gael lost 2 seats.

  3. 73.8%

    Voter turnout

    Down 2.4 points on 1981.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Fianna Fáil81+347.3+2.0786,951
Fine Gael63−237.3+0.8621,088
Labour Party1509.1−0.8151,875
Workers' Party3+22.3+0.638,088
Sinn Féin01.016,894
Independents40

± is the change against the Ireland 1981 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Fianna Fáil 786,951
  • Fine Gael 621,088
  • Labour Party 151,875
  • Workers' Party 38,088
  • Sinn Féin 16,894
  • Independents

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

73.8% of the 2,275,450 registered voters cast a ballot (1,679,500 ballots), down 2.4 points on 1981. 1,665,133 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout since 1961 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Fianna Fáil47.3% of votes48.8% of seats
  • Fine Gael37.3% of votes38.0% of seats
  • Labour Party9.1% of votes9.0% of seats
  • Workers' Party2.3% of votes1.8% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 2.2 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.7 by votes and 2.6 by seats; Fianna Fáil led Fine Gael by 10.0 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of