With returns trickling in from Ireland's national elections, the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party scored a breakthrough Saturday by winning its first-ever seat in parliament.
The winners for all 166 seats in the Dail, the key lawmaking chamber of parliament, won't be determined until at least Sunday because of the country's complex system of proportional representation.Ireland's largest party, Fianna Fail, was certain to take the most seats in Friday's vote, with at least 75 projected. Party leader Bertie Ahern topped the poll in his four-seat Dublin Central district, as did his older brother, Noel, in the four-seat Dublin Northwest.
The final count should determine whether Fianna Fail's alliance with the small conservative Progressive Democrats will allow them to form a government, which requires 84 seats.
If they fail to do so, and the Progressive Democrats were performing badly, the Dail will be "hung" - neither existing coalition could form a majority without courting support from independent politicians.
In that uncertain scenario, Prime Minister John Bruton's three-party "Rainbow" coalition would stand a chance of returning to power by getting the backing of the same maverick lawmakers that Ahern would need.
Bruton, in power since December 1994, remained the underdog. While his Fine Gael party appeared on course to win more than 50 seats, its main coalition partner, the liberal Labor Party run by Deputy Prime Minister Dick Spring, saw its surging support from 1992 collapse, particularly in Dublin. And the third tiny party in their coalition, the socialist Democratic Left, was likely to lose its leader, Proinsias de Rossa, in Dublin Northwest.
Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O Caolain captured a seat in Cavan-Monaghan, a five-seat constituency bordering British-ruled Northern Ireland.