Two-thirds of the seats were declared in a tight three-cornered battle

With two-thirds of the seats in the Irish parliament filled, Fianna Fáil led a tight three-cornered fight in the country’s general election.

With the initial counts of all 43 constituencies, the first preference percentages for the big three parties are: Fianna Fáil 21.9%, Fine Gael 20.8%, Sinn Féin 19.0%.

So far 134 out of 174 seats have been filled and the counting of votes has started on Sunday morning.

Fianna Fáil, which is in a coalition government with Fine Gael and the Green Party, is predicted to win most seats.

Counting resumed on Sunday morning with 59.7% voter turnout – the lowest in over a century.

The leaders of the three main Irish political parties were re-elected on Saturday to serve in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament).

Fianna Fáil’s Michael Martin, Fine Gael’s Simon Harris and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald To overcome their first obstacles By retaining their positions.

Now, they all face an even bigger challenge – trying to form the next government.

Labor leader Ivana Basic has also been re-elected in the Dublin Bay South constituency.

In the Cork South West constituency, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns and Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins retained their seats, and

Aontú leader Piedar Tobin has been re-elected in West Meath and Richard Boyd Barrett has returned to Profit-Solidarity for the Dún Laoghaire constituency.

Roderick O’Gorman of the Green Party was the last major party leader to be re-elected for Dublin West.

He was the only one of the 12 sitting Green Party TDs to retain their seats, with former Green Party deputy leader and government minister Catherine Martin withdrawing in the Dublin Rathdown race.

O’Gorman said Green candidates received “very few transfers” from the party’s former coalition partners, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

“I don’t think they did us any favors, but I didn’t expect them to do us any favors,” he said.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael served together in the outgoing government and are well placed to return to government after the first day of vote counting.

If he agrees to do so, he may need the support of smaller parties or several independent TDs who are expected to be elected as the counting of votes continues on Sunday.

Sinn Féin says it wants to be in the next government and the party is ready to talk to other parties and independents.

But, based on current predictions, the scale of the challenge facing Sinn Féin is enormous.

Political pundits are currently predicting that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could win a combined total of more than 80 seats – within touching distance of the golden figure of 88 TDs needed to secure a majority in the Dáil.

The same pundits believe Sinn Féin could pick up around 40 seats.

But even if it achieves that, it will still fall short of what is required for a Dáil majority.

In that case, Sinn Féin will have to look to smaller parties and independents.

However minor parties are expected to be in single figures when all their TDs are finally confirmed.

If Sinn Féin turns to independents, it will find a different group of TDs.

Finding common ground in such a situation is another big challenge for the party.

To complicate matters, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have insisted they are not interested in sharing power with Sinn Féin because of fundamental policy differences on a number of issues.

There is widespread belief that talks to form a new government could go beyond Christmas and into the New Year.

After one of the hottest stories of this election, independent candidate Gerry Hutch has officially lost the Dublin Central constituency.

At one point she had a 2,000 vote lead over Labour’s Mary Sherlock, but she was overtaken after a series of transfers from deposed Green Party and Fianna Fáil candidates.

The win was more notable for Hutch – he was last year Acquitted of high-profile murder When a man is shot dead in a boxing weight competition. The judge explained that he was involved in serious criminal acts in the past.

Analysis – BBC News NI political editor Enda McClafferty

Gerry Hutch could be robbed after hotly tipped to secure seat in Dublin Central.

But when he arrived at the counting center of the RDS, he was not upset about the defeat.

Besieged by journalists, the gangland man marched down the hall to congratulate Labour’s Mary Sherlock on her final seat.

He is known as a man of few words, but he said this when asked by BBC NI if he plans to run for re-election.

“I’ve been running all my life so yes I’ll go again,” he said

He said he was not surprised by the more than 3,000 first preference votes he received.

“I expected to be more honest,” he said

He was challenged about his criminal past but refused to answer any questions.

After shaking hands with Sherlock, he left the center surrounded by journalists and ran out of the building to escape the media attention.

So where did it go wrong for a man set to become the story of the Irish general election?

A key moment came when Social Democratic candidate Gary Gannon was elected earlier than expected.

Transfers from people who were removed before the benefit candidate pushed them to the quota.

This began a series of transfers by the disqualified Green and Fianna Fáil candidates, allowing Labour’s Mary Sherlock to close the gap with Hutch.

An extra from Paschal Donohoe was finally enough to secure last place past her Hutch.

But as one tally expert pointed out, it could have easily turned in Hutch’s favor, and nobody expected her to find it when Sherlock had such a narrow path to victory.