Following a campaign characterised by vitriol over the housing and cost-of-living issues, Ireland will vote on Friday with the incumbent coalition parties tied with the opposition party Sinn Fein.
Voters will select new representatives for the 174-seat Dail, the lower house of parliament, in Dublin, with polls opening nationwide at 07:00 GMT and closing at 2200 GMT.
Partial results are anticipated throughout the day, and counting is not scheduled to begin until Saturday morning.
However, because of Ireland’s proportional representation system, which involves redistributing the votes of eliminated candidates across several rounds of counting, the outcome might not be known for days.
According to final opinion polls, the three major parties—leftist-nationalist Sinn Fein, centre-right Fine Gael, and Fianna Fail—each held about 20% of the vote.
Fine Gael had a significant lead going into the campaign after its leader, Simon Harris, called a snap election earlier this month.
Harris became Ireland’s youngest prime minister ever when he succeeded his predecessor, Leo Varadkar, in April at the age of just 37.
Due in part to his social media acumen, which earned him the nickname “TikTok Taoiseach,” the 38-year-old was credited with revitalising Fine Gael.
However, the party has lost ground after a video showed Harris acting dismissively and rudely towards a care worker during the campaign trail went viral.
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