Ahern powers towards poll victory

Ahern will know on Saturday night if his party has an overall majority

DUBLIN, Republic of Ireland -- Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern headed comfortably for a second term in power as his Fianna Fail party scored gains in Ireland's general election.

What was unclear, however, was whether his party would win the 84 seats required to form the first Irish majority government in 25 years.

Results on Saturday afternoon suggested that Fianna Fail -- at present in coalition with the Progressive Democrats -- would win at least 80 of the 166 seats in the Irish parliament, the Dail.

Journalist Katie Hannon told CNN that there was also an "extraordinary surge" for Sinn Fein, most known for its presence in Northern Ireland and fighting its first election in the republic since the Good Friday agreement.

Hannon said the Republican political allies of the Irish Republican Army were likely to increase their representation from one to four and possibly five or six seats.

But the opposition moderate left Fine Gael party was licking its wounds after suffering severe losses and putting on its worst performance in decades.

With 32 of the 166 seats allocated, Fianna Fail had 20 seats, Labour 4, Fine Gael 2, Sinn Fein 2, Green Party 1 and Others 3.

Ahern, 50, who faces formal re-election when parliament convenes June 6, came to power in 1997 with the help of the Progressive Democrats or PDs, who gave Ahern's outgoing administration a right-wing hue and a pro-business agenda. They oversaw the past five years of unprecedented expansion in Ireland's vaunted Celtic Tiger economy.

The PDs were also doing far better than expected, partial returns from Friday's election showed.

Ireland's complex system of proportional representation, which allows three to five candidates to win in each of Ireland's 42 constituencies, always means a marathon ballot count. Most official results were expected by late Saturday night.

But Fine Gael, which has been the No. 2 party to Fianna Fail in every election since 1932, was facing humiliating defeat. Several key figures were struggling to win the final available seat in their districts, raising the question of who would survive to replace leader Michael Noonan, already widely tipped to resign.

Michael Gallagher, politics professor at Trinity College Dublin and author of a book on Fine Gael, said the party looked likely to retain fewer than 40 seats, its worst performance in six decades.

"I would see Fianna Fail coming in around 83 seats, on the cusp of an overall majority. For Fine Gael things are going extremely badly. It's a nightmare for them," Gallagher told The Associated Press.

One of the first results announced Saturday, the four-lawmaker constituency of Dublin Southwest, illustrated wider trends.

Sinn Fein supporters roared wildly with approval as their candidate, Sean Crowe, came top with 7,466 votes. Fianna Fail's Charlie O'Connor and Conor Lenihan looked likely to win two more seats with 7,155 and 7,080 votes respectively, with the last seat probably going to Labour's Pat Rabbitte, one of Ireland's most high-profile and outspoken lawmakers.

Sinn Fein is already a significant political force in the neighbouring British territory of Northern Ireland, its power base, where it has become part of a coalition Catholic-Protestant government formed under terms of the province's 1998 peace accord.

But Ahern had ruled out the possibility of admitting Sinn Fein into any Irish government until the outlawed IRA disbands as an organisation.