Published: 16:58, November 28, 2024
Irish PM's party steadies slide in support ahead of Friday's election
By Reuters
Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris arrives at RTE Donnybrook to take part in the final TV leaders' debate, ahead of the General Election on Nov 26, 2024 in Dublin. (PHOTO / AP)

DUBLIN - A slide in support for Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris' Fine Gael party showed signs of stabilizing in the last opinion poll before Friday's general election that if repeated would likely see the center-right led coalition return to government.

Fine Gael fell 2 percentage points to 20 percent in the Business Post/Red C poll but that was above the 19 percent it dropped to in a different survey on Monday after a series of campaign missteps eroded its pre-election lead.

Harris' main coalition partner, Fianna Fail, was the most popular party on 21 percent, unchanged from the last Red C poll taken at the start of the campaign, while the opposition Sinn Fein party was up two points to 20 percent.

READ MORE: Irish PM's party sees poll lead narrow ahead of election

Two of the three main parties will need to join together to form a coalition government if those numbers are broadly repeated on Friday. The last election in 2020 produced a similar result.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have both pledged to govern again without Sinn Fein, meaning the left-wing party, which had a commanding opinion poll lead until earlier this year, needs to finish well ahead of both to change the dynamic.

The poll was conducted from Nov 20 and Nov 26, the first survey to more fully take into account an incident last Friday in which Harris was filmed walking away from a care worker who was complaining about disability service.

Harris has since apologized repeatedly for the exchange, a clip of which went viral.

READ MORE: Ireland set to hold general election on Nov 29, PM says

An exit poll due shortly after voting ends at 2200 GMT on Friday will give a firm sense of the outcome, ahead of the main results that will come over the weekend.