Editing 3rd Dáil (section)

==Election of the Third Dáil/Provisional Parliament==
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{{main|1922 Irish general election}}
The election to the Third Dáil took place on 16 June 1922. It occurred under the system of [[proportional representation]] by means of the [[single transferable vote]]. Unlike the Second Dáil, which included members from the whole island of Ireland, the Third Dáil did not include members elected from [[Northern Ireland]]. Since the largely uncontested election of the [[Second Dáil]] in 1921, the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] had been negotiated, and [[Sinn Féin]]—the only political party represented in the Dáil—had split into pro- and anti-Treaty factions; these two factions became the major contestants of the 1922 election, and other parties stood for the first time.

On 20 May [[Arthur Griffith]] read out to the Second Dáil the agreed pre-election Sinn Féin "Pact", and also declared new elections for the constituencies of the former [[Southern Ireland (1921–22)|Southern Ireland]], and this was agreed to unanimously.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-05-20/2/|title=NATIONAL COALITION PANEL JOINT STATEMENT – Dáil Éireann (2nd Dáil)|date=20 May 1922|access-date=11 February 2019|archive-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003221036/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-05-20/2/|url-status=live}}</ref> Griffith could not call elections in [[Northern Ireland]] because of the Treaty provision that: ''… no election shall be held for the return of members to serve in the Parliament of the Irish Free State for constituencies in Northern Ireland''.<ref>Anglo-Irish Treaty, Article 11.</ref>

Despite the pact between the two Sinn Féin factions, the elections were seen by many as an endorsement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and a draft of the proposed [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]] was published in the week before election as an example of the work under way. The pro-treaty side won a majority of seats; the anti-treaty faction boycotted the new assembly, refusing to recognise the body as the legitimate heir to the Second Dáil, and the [[Irish Civil War]] broke out shortly afterwards.