Over 100,000 new registrations in the two weeks before the closing deadline add to the unpredictability of an election few are confident of calling
Over 100,000 new voting registrations in the two weeks before closing deadline add to the unpredictability of an election few are confident of calling
Almost 3.7 million people, the largest number ever, are eligible to vote in the election, an increase of 423,000 voters since the 2020 election. There were over 100,000 new registrations in the two weeks before the closing deadline – a fact which adds to the unpredictability of an election that few are confident of calling.
Fianna Fáil has been ahead in recent opinion polls but only by the shortest of noses and well within the polling margin of error. Fine Gael and Sinn Féin are close behind, and in truth all three parties were in a near dead heat as the campaign finished, bunched around the 20 per cent mark. On Thursday the party leaders embarked on a frantic last-minute round of canvassing. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was in Wicklow where he said the question of coalition with Sinn Féin was usually raised at the end of a campaign “for mischievous reasons to try and undermine the Fianna Fáil position, by some of our rivals perhaps, or even by some of those we might have been in government with”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald reiterated her plea for voters to “lend” their votes to her party, and also support others “parties of change”. Asked to elaborate on her view that Sinn Féin voters should support such parties, she said: “I think each constituency will differ, but I think we can identify parties like the Social Democrats which would share ideas on housing and other policies, People Before Profit, candidates of the left, some other Independent candidates.
Dail-Eireann Fine-Gael Fianna-Fail Sinn-Fein Social-Democrats People-Before-Profit-Solidarity-Pbps Labour-Party Mary-Lou-Mcdonald Micheal-Martin Simon-Harris Gary-Gannon Ipsos Rte Tg4
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