Dublin - Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern was
sworn in by President Mary McAleese for a third term Thursday after
being re-elected in the lower house or Dail in Dublin.
Ahern, whose Fianna Fail party won the largest number of seats in
the May 24 election, received 89 votes from the assembled MPs, while
the other main contender, Enda Kenny of the main opposition Fine Gael
party, won 76.
Thursday's vote followed the conclusion of a coalition deal late
Wednesday between Fianna Fail and the Green Party, which voted to
join a government coalition by a large majority.
Party leader Trevor Sargent stepped down after the vote, choosing
to abandon his post rather than enter a FF government. Two-thirds of
the votes were required in order to accept a draft deal hammered out
between the FF and the Greens.
The FF won the largest number of seats in the May 24 election but
fell short of an overall majority. Ahern also approached five
independents to secure a bigger majority.
The six seats won by the Greens add to FF's 78 and the two
remaining seats that existing coalition partners the Progressive
Democrats (PDs) managed to hold on to after their vote collapsed to
give a slim majority in the 166-seat Dail.
The Green Party had expressed concerns about entering government
with the liberal free-marketeer PDs, and had aligned itself during
the election campaign with the opposition Fine Gael and Labour
parties in a so-called 'alliance for change.'
The results in the May 24 election were: FF 78 seats, Fine Gael
51, Labour 20, Greens six, independents five, Sinn Fein - the
political wing of the dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) - four, and
the Progressive Democrats two.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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