Irish Election

Ireland just got a general election. They voted on thursday, and today saturday there are still counting ( and recounting the votes ) !!?!!!?

A bit of explanation is necessary. Irish voted thrursday for the Dáil Éireann eth lower house of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas Oireachtas] which is the parlement of the state. There are 166 seats elected for a maximum of 5 years ( but the Prime Minister can dissolve the Dail before that). A politican elected at the Dail is called a TD (Teachta Dála).
Ireland is divided ( which normally follow the counties limit, but subdvision can happen) in constituency, in order that each TD represent the same amount of people.
In each constituency there is 3 to 5 seats to be filled.
Other things, all members of the governement must be an elected TD ( there is less power separation between executive and legislative ), and the government composition is voted at the Dail. That means this election directly decide who is in power for the next five years.
Actually one of the member of the Dail is automatically re-elected (unless he resigned or die ):the Ceann_Comhairle

Now the fun part, how the TD are elected, and why does it 2 to 3 days to count the votes ( in a country where there is only 4 millions habitants ):
the system used is Single Transferable Vote which introduce proportionality in the results of the vote.
So it's not the 3 candidates with most votes in a constituency who necessarly got the seats.
First when you vote, you indicate a list of preferences for the candidates ( number 1 will be say candidate B, then 2 the candidate C... etc )
To be elected a candidate need to exceed a given quota ( calculated on the number of validat vote, basically : 1 + vote / ( setas + 1 ) .
Then one candidate exceed the quota, his vote are reported following the preferences indicated by the voter to the other candidates.

I can't imagine the mess when they are counting, and recounting ( at the moment saturday afternoon, 3 constituencies are recounting following reclamation from candidate )....

Update: That create some interesting TV show, RTE for example spend all friday and most of saturday airing a show going through each constituency, each count as they go along. Some constituency only got all seats filled after 7 to 8 count.
One interesting thing is with that kind of proportional system, one party can hardly get the overall majoroty on its own, it has to compromise and create coalition with smaller party.

For example, the overall majority is 84 seats, Fine Fael got 78, his current partner in the governement the Progressive Democtrats got 2... which means they need at least 4 ( out of 5 ) independants to join them ( or from another party, more likely green ).
The leader of the opposition Enda Kenny, is doing a different count: Fine Gael his party got 51 + 20 from the Labour + 6 from the green = 77, he needs the independant and all 5 independant and probably the 2 PD ( but his election program was vote for a change ) or Sinne Feinn ( but for some reason everybody ruled out to have a coalition with them ... from Ahearn to Kenny )... I don't quite actually understand him.