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| Sunday, 19 May 2002 |
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Early Irish election returns promising for Ahern DUBLIN, May 18 (Reuters) - Early results on Saturday from Ireland's general election appeared to support predictions of a landslide victory for Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's centre-right Fianna Fail party. Results from three constituencies where voting was conducted electronically showed Fianna Fail took six out of 12 seats, holding five and gaining a second seat in the largely middle-class area of Dublin North. Counting of paper ballots from the remaining 39 constituencies begins at 9:00 a.m. (0800 GMT), and predictions of the final result are expected to emerge by late morning. Fianna Fail -- which analysts predict could win its first overall majority in the 166-seat Dail, or lower chamber of parliament, in a quarter century -- increased its share of the vote in two of the three constituencies. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, failed to take any seats in the three constituencies but raised its share of the vote in all three, almost tripling its previous support in the northeastern rural area of Meath. The main opposition party Fine Gael, which ran a lacklustre campaign, lost substantial ground, and its loss of a Dublin North seat was seen as a major setback. Fine Gael also lost its seat in the predominantly working-class area of Dublin West to the Labour Party. Turnout in the three constituencies was between 57 and 60 percent. State broadcaster RTE said reports from around the country -- where some 2.95 million people were eligible to vote -- suggested turnout had been over 50 percent in many areas, and up to 70 percent in some rural districts in the northwest. Heavy rain, which persisted into the evening, may have discouraged a traditional "late flurry" of voting before polls closed at 10:30 p.m. (2130 GMT), experts said. Overall turnout in the 1997 election was 65 percent. The election result is expected to be a personal triumph for Ahern who is set to join party titans such as Charlie Haughey, three times Fianna Fail prime minister. Opposition parties have tried to attack Ahern on the poor state of public services and infrastructure, but the popular Dubliner has benefited from the feel-good factor created by the economic boom of recent years. Sinn Fein is tipped to win three to five seats, including a race in North Kerry in the west, where convicted IRA gunrunner Martin Ferris may win more votes than veteran Labour MP and former foreign minister Dick Spring. A political power in British-ruled Northern Ireland but traditionally shunned in the south, Sinn Fein has backed 37 candidates in 34 constituencies, more than ever before. With a radical left-wing programme it is courting disaffected voters left behind by the "Celtic Tiger" economy and disillusioned with mainstream politics. Sinn Fein gains in the Irish Republic would be likely to unsettle pro-British Protestants in Northern Ireland, where the IRA waged a bloody 30-year campaign against British rule. |
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