Exit poll: Major Irish parties in virtual tie

Election results might not come until Monday

DUBLIN — Ireland’s three biggest political parties are likely to face a difficult process of forming a new government, with an exit poll suggesting they finished in a virtual dead heat in parliamentary elections Saturday.

The survey, conducted for national broadcaster RTE, the Irish Times, TG4 television and University College Dublin by pollster Ipsos MRBI, said the Fine Gael party of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein all got about 22 percent of first preference votes.

The exit poll was based on 5,376 interviews conducted immediately after people voted at 250 polling stations. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

Vote counting starts Sunday, and it could be Monday before the results are determined.

With none of the three main parties likely to gain enough seats to govern alone, a coalition of some kind is almost inevitable.

But Sinn Fein was in a slightly weaker position than its two main rivals because it fielded only 42 candidates for the 159 seats available and might be unable to find enough like-minded left-leaning allies to form a workable government.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the two parties that have dominated Irish politics since independence, have shunned Sinn Fein because of its links to the IRA.

While Sinn Fein is a major force in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom region where it is part of the power-sharing government that helped end decades of sectarian violence, it has long been a minor player south of the border in the Irish Republic. But the party has attracted voters with left-wing proposals for tackling Ireland’s housing crisis and bolstering the nation’s creaking health care system.

Support for the traditionally dominant parties has fallen since the 2008 financial crisis, which hit Ireland’s debt-fueled “Celtic Tiger” economy particularly hard. Ireland was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and forced to seek a humiliating international bailout, which was followed by years of austerity.

Varadkar, the country’s first openly gay leader, became Taoiseach, or prime minister, in 2017 after the resignation of his predecessor. His party has governed Ireland since 2011, first in coalition with the smaller Labour Party and since 2016 as the leader of a minority administration with the tacit support of Fianna Fail.

The election campaign was dominated by domestic problems.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail said they would build more houses, ease hospital overcrowding and cut waiting times for medical treatment. Sinn Fein offered a more radical plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, freeze rents, build tens of thousands of new homes and lower the state pension age.

The focus on domestic issues overshadowed Varadkar’s greatest success: protecting Irish interests during negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Sinn Fein is calling for a referendum on Irish reunification within five years.

Brian Lawless The Associated Press Irish President Michael Higgins casts his vote in the parliamentary elections at a polling station Saturday in Dublin.