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fullscreen Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris and his wife Caoimhe vote in County Wicklow. They have their children Cillian and Saoirse with them. Photo: Niall Carson/AP/TT
It looks to be as even as expected in the Irish general election.
In the polling station survey that has been published, the three largest parties all seem to get between 19 and 21 percent of the vote, and now coalition negotiations await.
Prime Minister Simon Harris and his conservative Fine Gael get 21 percent in the survey published by the public service company RTÉ and the newspaper The Irish Times.
The party’s largest coalition partner, right-liberal Fianna Fáil, gets 19.5 percent and a new coalition government for the next four years is likely.
But left-wing nationalist Sinn Féin is the largest party by a narrow margin with 21.1 percent and will seek alternatives to a coalition government on the left.
Many independents
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald opened on Thursday for a collaboration with, among others, Labor and the Social Democrats in order to form a left-wing government. But the two parties, like the Greens, have also opened up to cooperation with the right-wing coalition.
According to RTÉ, the outcome of the election may also be decided by the many independent candidates who want to enter the Dáil – a chamber which, with this year’s elections, will grow by 14 seats to 174 representatives from 43 constituencies.
Party leaders gave birth to children
The official counting of votes does not begin until Saturday. In Ireland’s electoral system, voters can rank candidates in first, second and third choices. This complicates the counting of votes and makes it take longer than is normal in Western elections.
However, one winner is already clear. Early on election day, Social Democrat leader Holly Cairns gave birth to her first child, a daughter.
According to RTÉ, just over 50 percent of the 3.6 million registered voters chose to cast their ballots, slightly fewer than in the 2020 election.