Sinn Féin neck and neck with centre-right parties in Ireland’s election, exit poll shows
DUBLIN – Ireland’s main opposition party, Sinn Fein, appeared to win the most votes in Friday’s general election by a narrow margin, but its two main centre-right rivals will likely have enough seats to govern again without it, an exit poll showed.
The exit poll put the left-wing Sinn Fein on 21.1%, the centre-right Fine Gael of Prime Minister Simon Harris on 21.0%, and like-minded coalition partner Fianna Fail on 19.5%.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail pledged ahead of the election to seek to form a coalition without Sinn Fein, just as they did after the 2020 general election, when Sinn Fein also narrowly won the popular vote.
“There’s a three-way race now to see who will become the biggest party,” Finance Minister Jack Chambers from Fianna Fail told national broadcaster RTE, adding the party’s position on Sinn Fein had not changed.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, former rivals that have jointly led every government since the founding of the state nearly a century ago, may be able to form a majority with the support of one smaller party, according to Gail McElroy, Professor of Political Science at Trinity College Dublin.
The two parties currently govern with the Greens.
Opinion polls had suggested the three main parties were neck-and-neck ahead of the vote and that Ireland was headed for a broadly similar result to the last election in 2020.
