Irish politicians are facing messy talks over the creation of a new government as an exit poll suggests that the parliamentary election ended in a dead heat between the country's three biggest parties.
Vote counting began Sunday with analysts forecasting that some sort of coalition is inevitable. Full results are expected in two days.
The exit poll released after voting stations closed Saturday indicated that Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's centrist Fine Gael party, its centrist rival Fianna Fail and the left-wing Sinn Fein party all received about 22% of first preference votes. The survey was conducted by pollster Ipsos MRBI for national broadcaster RTE, the Irish Times, TG4 television and University College Dublin.
