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Irish PM marches toward re-election

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern waves as he leaves a TV studio in Dublin, Ireland, late on Friday, after initial counting results indicated that he would remain in power following the general election. PHOTO: AP

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's long-dominant Fianna Fail party marched toward its sixth straight election victory on Saturday after voters stuck with a popular leader who has presided over unprecedented economic success.

Ballot-counting resumed on Saturday morning with 145 of 166 seats filled in the Dail Eireann parliament and final results expected in the afternoon.

Fianna Fail had already won 73 seats with 41.6 percent of votes while its nearest rival, fellow center-ground party Fine Gael, had 43 seats.

"It's a great night for Fianna Fail, and it's a great night for the party machine," Ahern, 55, declared.

Ireland's complex system of proportional representation typically requires a two-day count. It encourages voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Ballots must be recounted multiple times so that lower-preference votes can be transferred from the ballots of victorious or eliminated candidates to those still in the race.

Fine Gael had hoped to rise to power in alliance with the left-wing Labour Party. But while Fine Gael fully recovered from its disastrous performance in the 2002 election, Labour failed to make any significant gains, leaving them unable to get close to the 83-seat total required to form a majority administration.

Analysts forecast the final result on Saturday would be Fianna Fail 78, down three seats from 2002; Fine Gael 51, up 20; Labour unchanged at 20; Progressive Democrats two, down six; Greens unchanged at six; Sinn Fein four, down one and independents five, down 10.

Analysts agreed that Labour was best positioned to help Fianna Fail, not Fine Gael, reach a majority.

But Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, a critic of the outgoing government, dedicated his campaign to ousting Fianna Fail from power. Neither Ahern nor Rabbitte was willing to discuss the prospects of a Fianna Fail-Labour combination, a combination that was tried in 1992-94 and collapsed in acrimony.

Ahern said his only goal now was "to command a stable government for a five-year term," which could also mean forging an alliance with the Greens or Fianna Fail-sympathetic independents. He confirmed his intention to serve as prime minister until mid-2012.

Fianna Fail's coalition partner, the Progressive Democrats -- whose tax-cutting, pro-business agenda influenced Ahern's policies -- suffered electoral meltdown.

The party's leader, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McDowell announced his immediate retirement from politics after he, his party deputy leader and party president all lost their seats.

"I love my country. I am deeply ambitious for it, but ... my period in public life as a public representative is over," said McDowell, who is also Ireland's justice minister.

The election's surprise losers were Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party that had expected to capitalize on its high profile in the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland, where earlier this month it began running a power-sharing government alongside the British Protestant majority.

Analysts tipped Sinn Fein, with its good finances and an army of volunteers, to double its 2002 seat total to 10. But instead it lost ground, dealing the party its first electoral setback since the IRA cease-fire of 1997.

Ahern is already the second-longest-serving prime minister in Irish history behind the founder of Fianna Fail, Eamon de Valera, who won seven elections from 1932 to 1957.
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