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Irish president dissolves parliament

02 February 2011 02:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Irish President Mary McAleese signed a proclamation Tuesday evening to dissolve the 30th Dail (lower house of parliament), paving the way for the general election which will take place on Feb. 25, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

In a short statement, President McAleese confirmed she had dissolved the 30th Dail at the request of outgoing Prime Minister Brian Cowen and that the incoming Dail will sit on March 9.

Later, Eamon O Cuiv, minister for the environment, heritage and local government, made an order appointing Feb. 25 as polling day and the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. to be the hours of polling.

The latest time for receiving nominations is noon on Feb. 9. Candidates may withdraw their nominations up to noon on Feb. 10.

There will be 166 members in the new Dail. The electorate, which is based on the new register of electors published Tuesday, currently stands at over 3.1 million.

Cowen remains in charge of the country until a new government is formed, according to Irish laws.

On Monday evening, in his hometown Tullamore, a city in County Offaly, he said that he would not contest the general election.

The Irish Senate has passed a finance legislation that enacts six billion euros (8.2 billion U.S. dollars) in tax hikes and budget cutbacks, agreed as part of December’s EU-IMF bailout for Ireland. This enables Cowen to seek a dissolution of parliament Tuesday.

The finance bill was passed Thursday in the Dail.

Cowen has already stepped down as leader of the Fianna Fail party but remained as prime minister to oversee passage of the finance bill, which gives legislative effect to the austerity budget required in the EU-IMF bailout.