The exit poll shows a tight three-way race

An opinion poll in the Republic of Ireland showed that Sinn Féin had 21.1% of the first preference vote while Fine Gael had 21%, making the result of the general election too close to be decisive. determined.

The poll showed Fianna Fáil had 19.5% of first preference votes.

It also suggested that 20% of second preference votes went to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with Sinn Féin on 17%.

The results were announced at 22:00 local time and were produced by Ipsos B&A for RTÉ, The Irish Times, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin. It has a margin of error of 1.4%.

The results also show that support for the Green Party’s top priority stands at 4%; Labor at 5%; Social Democrats at 5.8%; People Before Profit-Solidarity at 3.1%; and Independence at 12.7%, Irish independence at 2.2% and other countries at 1.9%.

The poll is based on 5,018 completed interviews carried out immediately after people voted at polling stations in 43 constituencies across the Republic of Ireland.

In the 2020 Irish general election, Sinn Féin won 24.53% of first preference votes, while Fianna Fáil received 22.18% and Fine Gael received 20.86%.

Results from this poll set the stage for the official vote count to begin at 09:00 local time on Saturday and is expected to continue through the weekend.

It is possible that some of the 43 constituencies will not have final results until early next week.

Successful candidates are called Teachtaí Dála (TD) and there are 174 seats to fill, but the Ceann Comhairle (speaker) is automatically returned.

More than 680 candidates compete for the remaining 173 seats.

The number of seats needed for an overall majority is 88 but no single party has enough candidates to win a majority on its own.

The first meeting of the new Dáil (House of Commons) is on December 18 but it is likely that coalition talks will have concluded by then.