A close-run race with no outright winner in sight

THE flux of this election campaign has been unprecedented.

What the opinion polls tell us — and not with any great accuracy — is not to write anyone off. Not Fianna Fáil when it’s down at 34%. Not Fine Gael or Labour when they’ve ebbed from a high tide of 31% and 13% to a less impressive 28% and 10%. Not the Greens, who dipped. Not Sinn Féin, despite Gerry Adams’s loose grasp of southern economics. Not even the PDs. Especially not the PDs. Remember last time.

With just 24 hours of a 24-day election campaign to go, the country is still on an uncertain course. Nobody can call it with any certainty. To be sure, the momentum has trended towards FF for the past week — but the main opposition parties are adamant the last poll wasn’t truly reflective of the public mood.