Vote counting underway in Ireland in tight, three-way race

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00The polling stations have closed, and according to the exit polls, Sinn Féin on the Nationalist

00:06Left has won the popular vote for the second time in a row in elections in Ireland. But

00:14with about 21.1% of the share of the vote, they have gone down since the last election.

00:23And they remain in the opposition the last time round because they couldn't form a government.

00:28It looks likely that they will end up with not enough seats in the Dáil, the Irish Parliament,

00:35to be able to form a government. Neck and neck with the two larger parties, the other

00:41two large parties in Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the centre-right. That's

00:47the outgoing coalition, and it looks very likely that the outgoing coalition will be

00:53able to go back and form a new government. But of course, we'll have to wait until the

00:58votes are counted this Saturday. Counting starts in the morning. Fine Gael, the running

01:06party at the moment as the Prime Minister, the tick-tock Taoiseach, only 38 years old,

01:13the youngest Prime Minister in Ireland. If his party gets enough seats in Parliament,

01:20he could be Prime Minister again for the second time. Or his deputy, finiful leader

01:26Micheál Martin could be, for the second time in his career, Prime Minister in his turn.

01:35In any case, it looks likely that this party will be commanding the largest share of the

01:39vote and that, with perhaps a smaller party like the Labour Party, could go back and form

01:49a government coalition.

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