Cowen braces himself for 100 lost council seats

FIANNA FÁIL was last night bracing itself to lose up to 100 council seats and see its Euro tally dive to just two as it faced a meltdown in support.

With just three full days of campaigning left until the triple election showdown, Brian Cowen was shown to have made absolutely no headway with voters as a fresh poll showed his party at an historic low.

Fianna Fáil dropped another three points to stand at 21% as Fine Gael and Labour both solidified their support and stayed on 34% and 18% respectively.

Sinn Féin was the big winner in the snapshot Red C tracking survey which put the party up three points to 10% as the Greens dropped one to 4% and others climbed one point to 13%.

The boost for Sinn Féin points to it beating Fianna Fáil and a late challenge by ex-socialist TD Joe Higgins to hold the third Dublin Euro seat. With Fianna Fáil facing an uphill struggle in Ireland East as well, the party could be left with just two of the 12 MEPs the country returns to Brussels.

Fianna Fáil is also set to lose its Dáil seat in Dublin South and limp in badly behind opposition parties in the other by-election in Dublin Central, on what would be a black Friday for the party, which will again increase pressure on Mr Cowen. Green leader John Gormley tried to put a positive spin on his party’s poor showing in the polls by saying it was the position they were in prior to the last local elections five years ago.

Mr Cowen has made it clear he will keep fighting up until polling day as he insists he will not take the result as a referendum on his premiership. However, opposition parties have gone on a war-footing to prepare for a snap summer general election in the event of a wipeout forcing Mr Cowen to go to the country.

Fianna Fáil is now facing the prospect of holding just over 200 council seats, which would not put them that far ahead of Labour.

The collapse in support is even more worrying for FF as the party hit what it hoped was rock bottom in 2004 when it lost 80 seats to remain barely ahead of Fine Gael in local government.

Party strategists hope a low turn-out could boost its support base and see it claim between 25% to 27% of the vote which would see it holding most of its local government berths.

The latest opinion poll confirmed the dire showing for the Government in a raft of similar surveys in recent weeks which have put FF at historic lows, and in one case showed it slumping to third place behind Labour.

Labour looks set to gain a Euro seat in Ireland East and it is part of the three-way dogfight to the last seat in Ireland South.