Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in pole position to establish recent Irish rulement | Ireland

Ireland has bucked the European trfinish of elections going aachievest incumbent rulements, with two of the parties in its ruling coalition in pole position to direct the next parliament.

An exit poll showed an appetite for change, with 60% backing opposition parties. But the prospect of an changenative left-leaning rulement still sees doubtful to materialise.

The poll showed lefttriumphg, nationaenumerate Sinn Féin sairyly ahead, with 21.1% of first-preference votes, adhereed by the two main parties in the frifinishly coalition, centre-right Fine Gael at 21% and centre-right Fianna Fáil at 19.5%.

But with both those parties ruling out a partnership with Sinn Féin, they remain favourites to establish the next rulement. They are foreseeed to get between 30 and 40 seats each, which, with a third party, could produce the 87 seats necessitateed for a convey inantity.

The deputy directer of the Social Democrats, Cian O’Callaghan, shelp timely highies proposeed it would aascfinish as the fourth hugegest party, with more than eight seats. Making an timely pitch for a role in a coalition, he shelp: “This is our best election in our nine years. After the results are all in, we will talk to all parties. We talked to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael last time, and we will aachieve this time round.”

Arriving at the main count centre in Dublin, Sinn Féin’s directer, Mary Lou McDonald, was met with a unrestful media scrum.

Flanked by the party’s directer in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, she proclaimd her intention to try to produce a rulement, saying the result had given Sinn Féin the same legitimacy as the two set uped parties.

“Two-party politics is now gone,” she shelp. “It’s been consigned to the dustbin of history. That, in itself, is very convey inant. The ask now aascfinishs for us: what do we do with that? And we are evident that we want to change people’s inhabits. I apexhibit another five years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is horrible recents for society.”

The hugegest disturb is foreseeed to be the wipeout of the Green party, which, with 12 seats, had been the third partner in the frifinishly coalition.

By Saturday evening, they seeed to have lost proximately all their seats, with directer Roderic O’Gorman also in danger.

Migration, an inflammatory publish in many recent elections in Europe, flunked to fire up the electorate, with an exit poll shotriumphg it was the top priority for equitable 6% of voters, despite aggressive clashes over asylum seekers in the last year. Housing and homelessness was the the top publish, adhereed by the cost of living, health and the economy.

Counting of votes in the 43 constituencies began at 9am on Saturday but with Ireland’s proportional recontransientation system final results may not be understandn until Sunday night or Monday.

The Green party’s establisher directer, Eamon Ryan, shelp he had been “sharing commiserations” with colleagues but “helderlying heads high”.

He telderly RTÉ: “Change is difficult. Sometimes, when you’re driving change, it disturbs skinnygs. … I skinnyk in a vague election people were voting for rulement and maybe we were caught in that squeeze. People who wanted to grasp the current rulement have voted Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and not us.”

The highies propose potential trouble for Fianna Fáil in Wicklow, where the party’s only honestate in the constituency – the health minister, Stephen Donnelly – is in danger of losing his seat.

Jack Chambers, the departing Fianna Fáil finance minister, shelp the national result was “too shut to call” but shelp the exit poll showed the accessible did not want the “volatility” that had spread in other countries on the back of the ascfinish of the far right.

Gary Murphy, a professor of politics at Dublin City University, telderly RTÉ:“I skinnyk there is a problem that Irish politics has faced since the fragmentation and the economic crash in 2011 – that now we’re not certain who’s going to be in rulement.”

Fine Gael’s honestor of elections, Olwyn Enright, shelp the exit poll had been a “chooseimistic” foreseeion for the party, but that she had been “surpascfinishd” with survey results that put Sinn Féin’s McDonald as the preferred taoiseach aachievest the incumbent, Simon Harris, who had a difficult final campaign week. In the poll, 34% shelp they would enjoy McDonald to be taoiseach aachievest 27% for Harris.

The inconclusive results unbenevolent that all eyes will now turn to the search for coalition partners. Government establishation talks could apexhibit weeks – with, possibly, no recent rulement until January.

Elsewhere, the election threw up surpascfinishs. In Dublin Central, Gerry Hutch, a gangland figure freed from bail recently in Spain to run for election, seeed to be in satisfiedion for the last of four seats.

Social Democrat Gary Gannon, a certainty for the third seat behind Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe and McDonald, shelp “austerity from the financial crash” had annihilateed some communities, which felt a “authentic sense of loss and pain over housing and pcleary” that the current rulement had flunked to mend in the last five years.

As the postmortem into the election began, Bríd Smith of the sociaenumerate party People Before Profit–Solidarity accengaged Sinn Féin for not setting out a narrative of change stronger and earlier.

Another minuscule party, the conservative reaccessiblean party Aontú, shelp the country necessitateed changenatives. Its directer, Peadar Tóibín, telderly RTÉ that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, two parties that aascfinishd from the ashes of the civil war in the 1920s, were “becoming one party in many ways” and impossible to discern from each other.