Vote counting ongoing in Ireland's parliamentary elections

The first day of vote counting in Ireland’s national elections has ended with the official exit poll published after polls closed suggesting a tight race among the country’s three largest political parties.

Ballot boxes were opened at 10:00CET on Saturday at counting centres across the country, kicking off a marathon vote-counting exercise to tally the results.

The exit poll, conducted by Ipsos B&A and published by public broadcaster RTÉ, suggested voter support is split fairly evenly among the three big parties — Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin — as well as several smaller parties and an assortment of independents ranging from the left to the far right.

The poll put the centre-right Fine Gael in first place with 21% of the vote and another centr-right party, Fianna Fáil, at 19.5%. Left-of-centre opposition Sinn Féin was polling at 21.1%.

First Dáil seats filled

In the early hours of Sunday morning after the day’s vote counting had ended, RTÉ said that 36 of the Irish parliament’s (Dáil) seats had been filled.

11 seats have been filled by Fine Gael candidates, 9 by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin have taken 8 and the rest made up by independent candidates or those representing smaller parties.

Though Sinn Féin, which aims to reunite Northern Ireland with the independent Republic of Ireland, could become the largest party in the 174-seat Dáil, it may struggle to get enough coalition partners to form a government.

The party achieved a stunning breakthrough in the 2020 election, topping the popular vote, but was shut out of government because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael refused to work with it, citing its leftist policies and historic ties with militant group the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

The outgoing government was led by the two parties who have dominated Irish politics for the past century: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

They have similar centre-right policies but are long-time rivals with origins on opposing sides of Ireland’s 1920s civil war.

Under Ireland’s system of proportional representation, each of the 43 constituencies elects multiple lawmakers, with voters ranking their preferences. That makes it relatively easy for smaller parties and independent candidates with a strong local following to gain seats.

Main concerns for voters

The cost of living and access to affordable housing dominated the campaign trail.

Ireland has an acute housing shortage, the legacy of failing to build enough new homes during the country’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom years and the economic slump that followed the 2008 global financial crisis.

The result is soaring house prices, rising rents and growing homelessness.

Tangled up with the housing issue is immigration, a fairly recent challenge to a country long defined by emigration.

ADVERTISEMENT

Recent arrivals include more than 100,000 Ukrainians displaced by war and thousands of people fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East and Africa.

This country of 5.4 million has struggled to house all the asylum-seekers, leading to tent camps and makeshift accommodation centres that have attracted tension and protests.