DUBLIN: Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny's ruling coalition of Fine Gael and Labour are set to win 32 percent in national elections, an exit poll indicated on Saturday, the second to clearly show they will be unable to return to power.
Kenny's Fine Gael will win Friday's election with 24.8 percent of the vote, the exit poll for national broadcaster RTE said. With Labour in line for 7.1 percent of the ballot, the parties would fall well short of the 41-42 percent they identified as needed for re-election.
Such an outcome would leave an unprecedented and potentially unstable alliance between historic rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which the exit poll put at 21.1 percent, as potentially
the only viable way to break the deadlock.
One Fine Gael junior minister said he would "of course" be open to the prospect after an exit poll showed a similar result after polls closed on Friday, the first senior member of either party to say so after weeks of rejecting the notion.
Reuters
