Counting continues on the second day of Ireland’s general election

More than half of the seats in the Irish parliament have been filled, with Fianna Fáil leading a tight three-way fight in the country’s general election.

With the initial numbers of all 43 constituencies, the first preference percentages for the three largest parties are: Fianna Fáil 21.9%, Fine Gael 20.8%, Sinn Féin 19.0% .

So far, 103 of the 174 seats have been filled and counting will continue on Sunday morning.

Fianna Fáil, who were in a coalition government with Fine Gael and the Green Party, are predicted to win the most seats.

Vote counting continued Sunday morning in an election that had a turnout of 59.7% — the lowest in more than a century.

The leaders of Ireland’s three main political parties were all re-elected on Saturday to serve in the Dáil (lower house of the Irish parliament).

Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, Fine Gael’s Simon Harris and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald have overcome their first obstacle by retaining their seats.

Now they all face an even bigger challenge – trying to form the next government.

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Labor Party leader Ivana Bacik was also re-elected in the Dublin Bay South constituency.

Social Democratic leader Holly Cairns and Irish Independent leader Michael Collins retained their seats in the Cork South West constituency, and

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín was re-elected in West Meath and Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit-Solidarity was returned to the Dún Laoghaire constituency.

Roderic O’Gorman of the Green Party is the last major party leader awaiting his final vote. He is running for Dublin West.

On Saturday, O’Gorman told reporters it was “clear” his party “did not have a good day”. Overall, he said the Greens had a disappointing result.

On Sunday night, former Green Party deputy leader and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin was eliminated in the Dublin Rathdown race.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael served together in the outgoing government, and after the first day of counting, they appear ready to return to government.

If they agree to do so, they may need the support of one of the smaller parties or some of the many independent TDs expected to be elected when counting continues on Sunday.

Sinn Féin has said it also wants to join the next government and that the party is ready to talk to other parties and independents.

However, based on current predictions, the scale of the challenge facing Sinn Féin is enormous.

Political experts are now predicting that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could win a combined total of more than 80 seats – within striking distance of the golden figure of 88 TDs needed to secure a majority in the Dáil.

The same experts believe Sinn Féin could win around 40 seats.

But even if it achieves that, it will still fall far short of what is needed by a Dáil majority.

In that case, Sinn Féin would have to look towards smaller, independent parties.

However, smaller sides are expected to only have single figures when all their TDs are finally confirmed.

If Sinn Féin goes independent, it will find a very different group of TDs.

Finding a common goal in such circumstances will be another big challenge for the party.

To resolve the issue, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stressed that they are not interested in sharing power with Sinn Féin because of fundamental policy differences on a range of issues.

There is widespread belief that negotiations to form a new government could stretch beyond Christmas and into the new year.

After becoming one of the most talked about stories in this election, independent candidate Gerry Hutch has officially lost in the Dublin Central constituency.

At one point, he had a 2,000-vote lead over Labour’s Marie Sherlock, but she overtook him after a series of turnovers from disqualified Greens and Fianna Fáil candidates.

A win for Hutch would be remarkable – he was last year acquitted in a high-profile murder case when a man was shot and killed during a boxing weigh-in. A judge described him as having been involved in serious criminal conduct in the past.

Analysis – BBC News NI political editor Enda McClafferty

Gerry Hutch may feel robbed after being tipped hotly to secure a seat in Dublin Central.

But he did not appear sad about his defeat when he arrived at the counting center at RDS.

Surrounded by journalists, the gangster marched across the hall to congratulate Labor’s Marie Sherlock, who had put him in the final seat.

He is known to be quiet, but when asked by BBC NI if he planned to run for re-election, he said he would.

“I’ve been running all my life so yeah, I’ll run again,” he said

He also said he was not surprised by the more than 3,000 first preference votes he received.

“Honestly, I expected more,” he said

He was challenged about his criminal past but refused to answer any questions.

After shaking Sherlock’s hand, he left the center surrounded by journalists and eventually ran out of the building to escape the media’s attention.

So where did it go wrong with the man poised to be the story of Ireland’s general election?

The crucial moment came when Social Democratic Party candidate Gary Gannon was elected much earlier than expected.

The transfer from the eliminated People Before Profit candidate pushed him to the quota.

That led to a series of transfers from disqualified Green and Fianna Fáil candidates, allowing Labour’s Marie Sherlock to close the gap on Hutch.

The redundancy from Paschal Donohoe was finally enough to push her past Hutch for the final seat.

But as one tally expert suggests, it could easily tip in Hutch’s favor, and although Sherlock’s path to victory is narrow, no one expects her to find it.