Ireland set to oust government, no obvious replacement: exit poll
Source: Reuters
Ireland looked set to kick Prime Minister Enda Kenny's coalition government out of office in an election on Friday with no clear alternative in sight, an exit poll indicated, threatening to plunge the country into a period of political instability.
Ireland's uneven recovery was the focus in the election in which voters punished the government for years of austerity despite warnings that political instability might damage a nascent recovery.
Kenny's Fine Gael will win the election on 26.1 percent, the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI exit poll said. With partners Labour in line for 7.8 percent of the ballot, they 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 22.9 percent, as potentially the only viable way to break the deadlock.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-election-idUSKCN0VZ013
World | Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:14pm EST
DUBLIN | BY PADRAIC HALPIN AND CONOR HUMPHRIES
= new reply since forum marked as read
