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Mettre une annonce
By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Prime Minister Brian Cowen's governing Fianna Fail party faced a rout on Friday in elections for local councils, the European Parliament and two Irish parliamentary seats.
Fianna Fail has dominated Irish politics since the 1930s, but voters are angry after fiscal and banking crises left Ireland mired in its worst recession on record.
"There is no faith in the government," Ken O'Reilly, a 48-year-old bricklayer said after voting for an independent candidate in one of Dublin's local elections.
"(It's) full of corruption. (The opposition) are slightly better, they could not be any worse," he said, adding a parliamentary election should follow sooner than scheduled in 2012.
Opinion polls predict Fianna Fail will get about 20 percent of the vote, putting it in third place behind opposition parties Fine Gael and Labour for the first time in any election.
If Fianna Fail wins less than 20 percent of councils seats and only two of its four European Parliament seats, analysts say the scale of the defeat could determine the fate of Cowen and the government.
Figures released on Friday showed the number of people claiming unemployment benefit reached a new peak of 402,100 last month.
"It'll be covered on the radio and not do the government any favours. Everything is going against them at this point in time," Alan McQuaid, Chief Economist for Bloxham Stockbrokers said of the figure almost doubled from the same time last year.
"I think Fianna Fail are going to take a right hammering and there will be an awful lot of pressure if not for a change of government, certainly for a change of leadership," he said.
WORST PERFORMANCE
Fianna Fail is unlikely to win either of the two parliamentary by-elections and the government's parliamentary majority could be cut to 51 percent making it more difficult for Cowen to push through unpopular fiscal measures.
In the last local elections in 2004, Fianna Fail polled just 34 percent of the vote, its worst electoral performance since 1927. The party was founded in 1926.
However, analysts say a complete wipe-out is far from certain and in a Reuters poll, six out of nine economists said a parliamentary election was unlikely this year.
"Do you punish them for getting it wrong or do you stick with them because they are probably the best placed to try and solve the problem, that to me is the dilemma," John, a civil service worker, said before casting his vote.
Voting started at 0600 GMT. Polls close at 2100 GMT. The results of the local and parliamentary elections will not be known until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.
The results of the European elections will not be released until after 2000 GMT on Sunday when polling stations in all EU member states close.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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