Ireland’s Green Party, one of the three previous governing parties, may lose a significant number of seats, as its leader admitted their politicians have “not had a good day”.
Counting is still in the early stages, and the final result may not be clear for days.
The first candidate to be elected – apart from the speaker of the parliament who is automatically returned – was Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll MacNeill in Dun Laoghaire. The first count there was declared just after 5pm.
While the three main parties are almost level with each other, several high-profile ministers look like they may be in difficulty in the initial tallies.
The leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein look set to be re-elected, but Green leader Roderic O’Gorman is in with a fight to hold on to his seat.
In 2011, the last time Greens exited a coalition government, the party lost all six of its TDs (MPs).
The Fianna Fail health minister Stephen Donnelly and the Green media minister Catherine Martin also look to be in trouble.
Meanwhile, alleged crime boss Gerard Hutch appears to be in contention for the fourth seat in Dublin Central – the same constituency as Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald.
A Special Criminal Court judge described Mr Hutch, 61, as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he had engaged in “serious criminal conduct”.
Counting started at 9am this morning with the first results expected this evening – but the final result may not be known for several days.
An exit poll after the vote closed on Friday suggested Sinn Fein had picked up 21.1% of the vote, with Fine Gael on 21% and Fianna Fail on 19.5%, with a 1.4% margin of error.
While Sinn Fein was ahead in the exit poll, it looks likely that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will form another coalition with at least one other smaller party. Their leaders have vowed not to enter government with Sinn Fein, citing substantial policy differences.
But Ms McDonald told reporters as she arrived in Dublin’s main count centre that she is not giving up on forming a coalition and will talk to the other leftist parties.
She said voters have given Sinn Fein “a powerful and a strong mandate” that it had been “an incredible performance” by the party’s candidates.
She also claimed that Sinn Fein has “broken the political mould” and that “two party politics is now gone”.
“It’s consigned to the dustbin of history, and that in itself is very significant. The question now arises for us, what do we do with that?” she said.
A coalition is inevitable as no party put forward enough candidates to reach a majority in parliament.
Voters in Ireland rank their choices rather than choosing one candidate. Prospective politicians must then reach a quota after rounds of vote counting, which often takes several days. There are between three and five seats up for grabs in each constituency.
After all 174 seats are filled, the process of forming a government begins.
Away from the three main parties, Labour and the Social Democrats look set to increase their share of votes in this election.
Holly Cairns, the leader of the Social Democrats who was elected to her county council by one vote in 2019, was unable to vote this time around as she gave birth to a baby girl on polling day.
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