Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, is ahead in the polls and looks set to have another term as PM
By SEBASTIAN LANDER
May 21, 2007
The Sun
IRISH PM Bertie Ahern could be set to extend his ten years in office.
His Fianna Fail party has surged ahead in the opinion polls in the run up to Thursday's elections with 41 per cent support from voters.
Political parties are battling it out in a bid to control the 166-seat parliament Dail Eireann.
But lack of support for Ahern’s would-be coalition partners pointed to the continued risk of a 'hung parliament' where no potential coalition could command a parliamentary majority.
Both polls, published in the rival Irish Times and Irish Independent newspapers, offered identical results.
Fianna Fail jumped to 41 percent support, while the traditional number two party, Fine Gael, fell to 27 percent while number three Labour fell to 10 percent.
Mary McAleese, Republic of Ireland's 8th President since it broke away from the Union
At stake is whether Ahern’s center-right government, supported by a small pro-business party called the Progressive Democrats, can prevent the center-left combination of Fine Gael and Labour from wielding power for the first time in a decade.
Ahern’s political survival could depend on his current government partners, but the Progressive Democrats continue to lag at the bottom of all polls with just two percent backing.
Fianna Fail is Republic of Ireland's party in government
Two hard-left parties, Sinn Fein and the Greens, could serve as kingmakers to either side.
Both polls published today measured the Greens - who are being courted by both sides - on six percent support.
Sinn Fein - which both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have rejected as incompatible government partners - was on nine percent.
dailymail.co.uk