The "Man of the People" Stays On

Ireland has made it clear that it is satisfied with the ruling government. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whom many call a "man of the people", will stay on in his position.

His party has ended up just short of an absolute majority. Fianna Fail won 80 of parliament's 166 seats, with all but one seat decided in counting. Ahern is now expected to form a government with his existing coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats. They doubled their seats from four to eight.

Things didn't run as smoothly for the opposition Fine Gail party. It slumped to 31 seats, down from 54, prompting it's chairman Michael Noonan to resign. The opposition leftist Labour party maintained its 21 seats.

"Our day has arrived."

But two minority parties made sizeable gains. The Greens improved from two to six mandates. The political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Sinn Fein, jumped from one to five.

"Our day has arrived," said Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams (photo). "Sinn Fein is now a major political force for change in this state."

Prime Minister Ahern said it was time for Sinn Fein to get the IRA to disarm. "Sinn Fein will have to go the rest of the way," Ahern said on Sky television.

The IRA, which fought a bloody 30-year-long battle to end British rule in Northern Ireland, has put portions of its vast arsenal "beyond use", but still has huge caches of arms in reserve. "There cannot be ambiguity," Ahern said. "You cannot have a position where you have some kind of allegiance and loyalty understanding with a paramilitary army."

Sinn Fein sits in government in Northern Ireland and holds seats in the British parliament. But this is the first time it has been given a significant voice in the southern parliament.

Turning away from the EU?

The election results could cast a shadow over EU expansion plans.

Adams, who campaigned but was not a candidate, said opposition in the south "was very anaemic up until now". But he predicted change with Sinn Fein, the Green Party and other small or mid-sized parties working together.

He said the outcome was a mandate for "an alternative vision" for those who feel left out by Ireland's booming "Celtic Tiger" economy, the fastest growing in the European Union.

Both Sinn Fein and the Greens strongly oppose the Nice Treaty. Irish voters rejected the treaty in a referendum last June, but the government intends to hold another referendum.

It hopes to overcome concerns that the treaty would infringe on Ireland's tradition of military neutrality with a declaration agreed by EU members. But a recent opinion poll showed opposition to the treaty in Ireland growing and the election makes its future even more doubtful.

"Nice will be one of the first challenges of this government," Adams said.

The election outcome was, however, not seen as a blow to the Northern Ireland peace process. "It looks like there will be a stable government led by Ahern and that the lines of policy on Northern Ireland will remain what they were rather than shifting in a more radically 'green' direction," said Paul Bew, a professor of Irish politics at Queen's University, Belfast.

"The balances that are necessary to preserve the agreement have not been signficantly challenged by this election," he added.