Leo Varadkar has tendered his resignation after attempts to elect a new taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) ended without agreement.
There were four nominations for the post, including Mr Varadkar and Mary Lou McDonald, nominated by Sinn Féin. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the terrorist IRA, did extremely well in the election capitalising on youth disatisfication with the political system in the Irish Republic.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan were also nominated by their respective parties.
Varadkar, Fine Gael’s leader, will continue as caretaker taoiseach until a new government can be formed.
With the election results failing to return a majority, voting was fractured along party lines. It took 70 days for parties to agree a government back in 2016.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald had the highest number of votes in her favour, with 45, but a majority would require 80.
Micheál Martin polled 41 votes, while Varadkar recieved 31 votes.
The final candidate, Eamon Ryan, was left with 12 votes in his favour.
Varadkar said: “The responsibility is now on all of us to make sure we provide good government and indeed good opposition.”
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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