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| Europe | |
| Ahern triumphant in Irish elections | |
| 2007-05-27 | |
On a day of high political drama, Fianna Fail confounded its critics with a sensational electoral performance that opened up the possibility that it could form a single-party government. Enda Kenny's opposition Fine Gael party also made considerable gains but it was a bad election for the smaller political parties. Sinn Fein, in particular, failed to make the breakthroughs it expected in constituencies in Dublin and Donegal. And Deputy Prime Minister Michael McDowell quit politics after losing his seat as his Progressive Democrats party lost a number of high-profile candidates. With many seats still to be decided, Fianna Fail strategists were not ruling out the possibility that they would have to enter into a coalition again. With the party chasing the magic 83-seat figure for an overall majority, the Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said: "We potentially will be around the 80-seat mark. "That might mean we won't have to look at coalition options." He also confirmed Fianna Fail received congratulations on their success from an unlikely source last night - Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists. He received a message from the DUP leader's son, Ian Paisley jnr, a junior minister in the new Stormont Executive. "He congratulated me and the party," Mr Ahern said. "He said maybe the DUP could take a few lessons on vote management from the Fianna Fail election machine." | |
| Posted by:Seafarious |