IRISH COALITION PARTIES ON TOP AFTER MARATHON EUROPEAN ELECTION COUNTS

Ireland's two main coalition parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, each won four of the 14 seats contested for the European Parliament after marathon election counts ended on Friday, with the main opposition Sinn Fein trailing both on two seats. While that represented a one seat gain for Sinn Fein on the last election in 2019, the party had hoped to do much better in the European and local council elections held on the same day, only to get around half the vote of each of their main rivals.

The left wing party was polling as high as 35% in October but its commanding three-year opinion poll lead disappeared ahead of last Friday's elections as more voters came to see immigration as their top concern rather than affordable housing, an issue which Sinn Fein dominated.

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