Polling for the Irish general election was yesterday, only you would be extremely hard put to pick that up from the terminally parochial British media, which has barely mentioned the campaign.
With 566 candidates contesting 165 seats, turnout is believed to relatively high, close to 70 percent against 62 percent in the 2007 election.
The main opposition party, Fine Gael, is expected to lead the next government but without an overall majority, according to an exit poll for state broadcaster RTE. Some 36.1 percent of respondents claimed to have given their first preference votes to this centre-right party, its best result since 1982, but below that needed for an outright victory.
COMMENT: IRISH GENERAL ELECTION THREAD
