Election 2020: Fine Gael cling to hope of last-minute swing

Fine Gael have denied their election campaign is in meltdown and insisted a last-minute swing back in support will help win them over 50 seats.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe predicted a late recovery would give Fine Gael enough votes to be the biggest party.

But his party leader, after a tough campaign for Fine Gael, said that if the polls were correct the country was going to have “real difficulty forming a government.”

The final few hours of campaigning were also marked by last-minute internal voting pact splits by some parties, as well as surprise endorsements.

And after the three-and-a-half week winter campaign, voters today will go to the polls in 39 constituencies and elect the 160 members of the 33rd Dáil.

Amid internal Fine Gael fears that the party could lose at least a dozen seats as well as see a number of ministers not returned to Leinster House, Mr Donohoe came out fighting as he attended a final campaign event at a care centre in his Dublin Central constituency.

“I believe further change and how people are going to vote in the last 48 hours of this election is very, very likely,” he said.

I think there is a real prospect Fine Gael will be the biggest party in the next Dáil.

The Fine Gael director of elections also said it was “possible” Fine Gael could win more than 50 seats — its 2016 figure — this time.

But he also said: “I have, to date, avoided putting a figure or tally out there.”

Canvassing in Clare, party leader Leo Varadkar also predicted a dilemma ahead, once votes were counted.

“If the polls are correct, then I think we are going to have real difficulty forming a government,” he said.

“No election is easy. It has turned into a three-horse race — Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Sinn Féin — which I think nobody would have anticipated at the start of this campaign, that it would be a three-horse race, but it is.”

Mr Varadkar also revealed that he would fight to retain leadership of Fine Gael in the event of his party losing the general election.

Under party rules, he would have to submit himself to a confidence vote.

“If that were to happen, I would ask to stay on as party leader and lead the opposition, and be ready to pick up the pieces in five years’ time after Fianna Fáil do to the country what they usually do,” he said.

But Fianna Fáil counterpart Micheál Martin, while acknowledging that people would not forget the impact of the crash, said Fianna Fáil had been “constructive” during “nine long years” in opposition.

The “bottom line”, he said, is that people wanted a change of government and that he would look to the Greens, Labour, and other centre-ground politicians to form one.

Canvassing in Dublin, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said people needed to realise that their vote matters.

“Every vote is equal tomorrow,” said Ms McDonald. “The vote of the wealthiest person, the vote of the person who is really struggling, you have an equal say, please realise that and please come out and vote for change.”