Counting of votes has begun in Ireland after Friday's parliamentary elections. According to TV channel RTE, it may take some time to determine the winner, as the difference between the leading parties according to exit polls is only 0.1 percentage points.
Voter polls show the nationalist Sinn Fein (SF) party led by Mary Lou Macdonald won 21.1% of the vote and the centre-conservative Fine Gael (FY) Prime Minister Simon Harris - 21 %. Center Liberal Party Fianna Foil (FF) Foreign and Defense Minister Michal Martin secured 19.5% of the vote.
At the same time, the formation of the next coalition government of FG and FF, which previously announced their refusal to cooperate with Sinn Fein, seems most likely. In the 2020 elections. SF received 24.5% of the vote, but over the years its popularity has noticeably declined. Then FF got 22.2% and FG got 20.9%.
As it turned out during the exit polls, 31% of those polled would like to see a coalition of FF and FG in power, while 22% would prefer a coalition led by Sinn Fein. and without the centrists, but such an outcome is assessed as unlikely. The small parties will have a decisive role in the formation of the future government – the social democrats. (5.8%), the Irish Labor Party (5%) and the Green Party (4%) - a partner of FF and FG in the last ruling coalition.
Given the fact that each party needs at least 88 mandates to form a government, the future governance of the republic will inevitably be coalition. None of the political associations that participated in the elections nominated such a number of candidates. The last election that resulted in a single party ruling (it was the FF) was held in 1977.
In a country with a population of 5.26 million people, there are 3.6 million registered voters. According to polls, the most pressing issues for voters are the housing crisis and homelessness, the cost of living and inflation, health care, economic stability and immigration policy.