Tallies are now flooding in, and it looks like the primary party of government in Ireland for the last 75 years is about to take a total hammering in the election.
Not only has their vote collapsed, but the turn out was high (initially interpreted as favourable to FF) meaning that tens of thousands of people turned out to vote for any other party than FF.
Predictions that controversies between the prospective new coalition parties, Labour and Fine Gael, would reduce the Labour vote seem not to have come true as in some constituencies (contrary to the result in almost every other election in this country's history) especially 4 seat ones in Dublin, FG and Labour are taking 2 seats each and the FF is out in the cold.
Sinn Féin's vote is up, much to many people's chagrin. But their candidates don't tend to garner tranfers from other candidates, similarly FFers tend not to get transfers from people who vote for other parties ("transfer-toxic" is the phrase).
Fine Gael look as though they'll be the largest party in a coalition without any overall majority. 39% of voters exit polled said they would like to see Enda Kenny, FG's leader, as Taoiseach, which in our system is a very significant figure indeed. Only 21% said they would prefer Micheál Martin (FF's leader) as Taoiseach.
This looks like it will be a historic election, the extent to which FF has dominated this country for generations cannot be under estimated, so this kind of massive shift against them says much about the current state of the country and what its likely future will entail.
You can follow the results of the count and get the latest on Ireland's election here- Live - Election Count - RTÉ News
Not only has their vote collapsed, but the turn out was high (initially interpreted as favourable to FF) meaning that tens of thousands of people turned out to vote for any other party than FF.
Predictions that controversies between the prospective new coalition parties, Labour and Fine Gael, would reduce the Labour vote seem not to have come true as in some constituencies (contrary to the result in almost every other election in this country's history) especially 4 seat ones in Dublin, FG and Labour are taking 2 seats each and the FF is out in the cold.
Sinn Féin's vote is up, much to many people's chagrin. But their candidates don't tend to garner tranfers from other candidates, similarly FFers tend not to get transfers from people who vote for other parties ("transfer-toxic" is the phrase).
Fine Gael look as though they'll be the largest party in a coalition without any overall majority. 39% of voters exit polled said they would like to see Enda Kenny, FG's leader, as Taoiseach, which in our system is a very significant figure indeed. Only 21% said they would prefer Micheál Martin (FF's leader) as Taoiseach.
This looks like it will be a historic election, the extent to which FF has dominated this country for generations cannot be under estimated, so this kind of massive shift against them says much about the current state of the country and what its likely future will entail.
You can follow the results of the count and get the latest on Ireland's election here- Live - Election Count - RTÉ News
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