Fianna Fail sweeps to victory

Bertie Ahern: Great night for the party

With nearly all the votes from Friday's election counted, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fail party have emerged as easy winners in the country's general election.

But it is still not clear if Mr Ahern - who has presided over what he has called Ireland's "golden times" of economic fortune - will realise his dream of forming the country's first government for more than 25 years with an outright majority.

Results with 161 seats counted (out of a total of 166)

Fianna Fail: 80

Labour: 19

Fine Gael: 31

Progressive Democrats: 6

Sinn Fein: 5

Green Party: 6

Others: 14

The results also showed big gains for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, with the party capturing a seat held for more than 20 years by former Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring, of the Labour Party.

Even before all the results had been counted, the leader of the main opposition Fine Gael party, Michael Noonan, resigned.

Fine Gael turned in its worst performance since 1948, losing more than a third of its seats.

Fianna Fail had won 80 of the 166 seats in the lower house of parliament by Sunday evening, with five results still to be declared.

You cannot have a position where you've some kind of allegiance and loyalty understanding with a paramilitary army

Bertie Ahern,
speaking about Sinn Fein

But Mr Ahern dampened expectation that that he would gain the 84 seats necessary for an overall majority.

"I think we'll be on 80 to 81 seats," he said, adding that he would be happy to renew his outgoing coalition with the Progressive Democrats who had four seats.

Sinn Fein, who had only one member in the outgoing parliament, has so far won five seats.

Ireland's complicated proportional representation system means it may be some time yet before all the results are known.

'Force for change'

In North Kerry, a former IRA gun-runner, Martin Ferris, won a seat for Sinn Fein at the expense of Mr Spring.

Michael Noonan: Quit after poor showing

The result was a major setback to one of the key movers of the Northern Ireland peace process, who had recently talked of wanting to return to the forefront of Irish politics.

In its campaign, Sinn Fein has targeted the younger vote, focusing on social issues such as drugs, crime and poverty.

But party leader Gerry Adams said: "People will see this (result) as an endorsement of the peace process and will welcome it as such."

"Sinn Fein is now a major political force for change in this state," he said.

But Mr Ahern challenged Sinn Fein to persuade the IRA to disarm saying: "Sinn Fein will have to go the rest of the way.

"There cannot be ambiguity. You cannot have a position where you've some kind of allegiance and loyalty understanding with a paramilitary army."

The election also saw gains for the Green Party, while Labour suffered several setbacks.

For Mr Ahern, however, who has steered Fianna Fail through financial scandals and other problems in the past five years, there was little need for soul-searching.

"It's a great night for Fianna Fail. It's a great night for the party and all those who work for the party," he said.