{"id":282086,"date":"2011-02-25T10:50:16","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T10:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/"},"modified":"2011-02-25T10:50:16","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T10:50:16","slug":"irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"75.7525773196\">  <!-- start feedback link --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/feedback link -->       <!-- Tracking values --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--startclickprintinclude-->   <!--endclickprintinclude--> <!--startclickprintexclude--> <\/p>\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>By  <b>Paul Armstrong<\/b> and <b>Peter Taggart<\/b>, CNN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<div readability=\"59.007988885\"><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- CONTENT -->  <!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--===========CAPTION==========--><\/p>\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny of the Fine Gael party campaigns on the last day before polls open.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--===========\/CAPTION=========--> <!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- \/REAP --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><b>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/b><\/p>\n<ul><!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<li>Dublin government negotiated a $113B IMF, EU loan package in December<\/li>\n<li>Terms of deal deeply unpopular as Ireland must push through tough austerity measures<\/li>\n<li>Prime Minister Brian Cowen retiring from politics and will not be a candidate<\/li>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--> <!--startclickprintinclude--> <\/p>\n<p><b>(CNN)<\/b> &#8212; Irish voters went to polls Friday in the financially-troubled country&#8217;s first general election since it accepted a multibillion-dollar bailout package.<\/p>\n<p>The Dublin government negotiated an \u20ac85 billion ($113 billion) loan package in December from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and individual European nations, as the crippling cost of bailing out its banks during the financial crisis took its toll on national coffers.<\/p>\n<p>However the terms of the deal, which involved Ireland making swingeing cuts to its budget, proved hugely unpopular, damaging the standing of the ruling Fianna Fail party.<\/p>\n<p>Once hailed as a &#8220;Celtic Tiger&#8221; during a period of rapid economic growth between the late 1990s and 2007, Ireland is now in the middle of a deep recession with a soaring unemployment rate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/OPINION\/11\/18\/ireland.debt.crisis.lesson\/index.html\">Irish debt disaster a lesson missed?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In January Prime Minister Brian Cowen announced he was retiring from politics and would not be a candidate in the election.<\/p>\n<p>During his farewell address he said: &#8220;I believe we have worked hard to correct past failures and to secure the future recovery of our country.<\/p>\n<p>  <!--startclickprintexclude--><\/p>\n<div>\n<div readability=\"6.5\">\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>This election will define our economic future and it will decide whether Ireland moves forward from this recession.<br \/><span>&#8211;Outgoing PM Brian Cowen<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This election will define our economic future and it will decide whether Ireland moves forward from this recession or whether we prolong it or indeed succumb to it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Opinion polls suggest Fianna Fail will suffer heavy losses with the main opposition party, the center-right Fine Gael, likely to win the most seats. <\/p>\n<p>If the opinion polls are accurate, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny will be the next prime minister and is likely to form a coalition government with the center-left Labour Party. <\/p>\n<p>Sinn Fein is also performing strongly in opinion polls and is tipped to double its representation from five to at least 10 members of the Irish parliament. The Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has moved from Northern Ireland politics to stand in the Republic of Ireland for the first time, aged 62. He has resigned as a British lawmaker. <\/p>\n<p>Polls stay open until 10 p.m. GMT Friday and over three million people are entitled to vote. <\/p>\n<p>With the speaker of the parliament automatically returned, 165 MPs will be elected by the proportional representation single transferable vote system in 43 multi-seat constituencies. <\/p>\n<p>The counting of votes starts 9 a.m. GMT Saturday, with the first results due within hours.<\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end --><br \/>\n<!-- \/cnn_strybtmcntnt --><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/cnn_strycntnt --><!-- \/cnn_strycntntrgt --><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/cnn_world\/~3\/HaS12bYmcB0\/index.html\" title=\"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Paul Armstrong and Peter Taggart , CNN Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny of the Fine Gael party campaigns on the last day before polls open. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Dublin government negotiated a $113B IMF, EU loan package in December Terms of deal deeply unpopular as Ireland must push through tough austerity measures Prime Minister Brian Cowen retiring from politics and will not be a candidate (CNN) &#8212; Irish voters went to polls Friday in the financially-troubled country&#8217;s first general election since it accepted a multibillion-dollar bailout package. The Dublin government negotiated an \u20ac85 billion ($113 billion) loan package in December from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and individual European nations, as the crippling cost of bailing out its banks during the financial crisis took its toll on national coffers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Paul Armstrong and Peter Taggart , CNN Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny of the Fine Gael party campaigns on the last day before polls open. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Dublin government negotiated a $113B IMF, EU loan package in December Terms of deal deeply unpopular as Ireland must push through tough austerity measures Prime Minister Brian Cowen retiring from politics and will not be a candidate (CNN) -- Irish voters went to polls Friday in the financially-troubled country&#039;s first general election since it accepted a multibillion-dollar bailout package. The Dublin government negotiated an \u20ac85 billion ($113 billion) loan package in December from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and individual European nations, as the crippling cost of bailing out its banks during the financial crisis took its toll on national coffers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-25T10:50:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\",\"name\":\"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-25T10:50:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/25\/irish-voters-head-to-polls-amid-economic-turmoil\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Irish voters head to polls amid economic turmoil - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By Paul Armstrong and Peter Taggart , CNN Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny of the Fine Gael party campaigns on the last day before polls open. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Dublin government negotiated a $113B IMF, EU loan package in December Terms of deal deeply unpopular as Ireland must push through tough austerity measures Prime Minister Brian Cowen retiring from politics and will not be a candidate (CNN) -- Irish voters went to polls Friday in the financially-troubled country's first general election since it accepted a multibillion-dollar bailout package. 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