Irish voters will elect almost 1,000 new councillors and 14 members to the European Parliament.
Vote counting in Ireland’s European elections will begin on Sunday while the picture of the country’s local government will continue to take shape.
On Saturday, the public expenditure minister said the expectation that Sinn Fein would be in the next government has been “shattered” by the initial indications in the local elections. Despite winning 24.5% of first preference votes in a historic result in the 2020 general election, and hovering above 30% in opinion polls for a long time, the fate of many of Sinn Fein’s candidates are expected to depend on transfers.Despite this, Sinn Fein is expected to still make some gains on the 2019 election, where it won around 9% of first preference votes and 81 council seats out of 949.
Ireland’s deputy premier Micheal Martin argued that his Fianna Fail party had performed “far better” than predicted, while Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the results so far showed Fine Gael was not a spent political force.Finance Minister Michael McGrath said there had been “no massive breakthrough” for the far right in the Irish elections, despite concerns raised during the campaign.
Asked about Fine Gael’s performance compared with Sinn Fein, Mr Donohoe said: “Overall, the portrayal that some have offered of Fine Gael as a tired party – that narrative, that claim, has been shattered by the results that we’re seeing potentially coming through at the moment. “I’ve been looking at opinion polls now for the last three years. This ‘internet panel’ polling having Fianna Fail at 14% and 15% – clearly Fianna Fail will be well ahead of that and will be over 20% by the time all of these counts are collated and put together.
The polls will provide political parties with evidence of voter sentiment, having had to wait more than four years since the last nationwide elections.They are also an indicator of how new Fine Gael leader and Irish premier Simon Harris is faring, having assumed the roles around eight weeks ago after the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar.
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