Irish PM’s party lead narrows ahead of Friday’s general election, poll shows

DUBLIN – Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris’ Fine Gael party has seen its lead over both its main coalition partner and the primary opposition party narrow significantly ahead of Friday’s general election, an opinion poll showed.

Fine Gael is still the most popular party with the support of 22% of respondents, but that is down from 26% three weeks ago, according to the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll, which was taken on Thursday and Friday.

Fine Gael’s main coalition partner, Fianna Fail, remained at 20%, while opposition party Sinn Fein gained two points, rising to 20%.

The bounce in support for Fine Gael triggered by Harris’ appointment as party leader in April is “now history” after a series of campaign missteps, the Sunday Independent said.

Sinn Fein, which held a commanding lead in opinion polls earlier this year, needs to finish well ahead of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to block their rivals’ path to re-election, as both parties have pledged to govern together again without Sinn Fein.