DUBLIN: Support for the party of Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny slipped in the first opinion poll published since the current election campaign started, the latest sign the election may fail to produce a stable government.
It is the latest in a series of polls that have indicated the current coalition of Kenny's centre-right Fine Gael and centre-left Labour would fail to secure enough votes for a majority.
Ireland votes on Feb. 26, Kenny announced on Wednesday, in an election likely to focus on whether the benefits of the country's recovery are being shared fairly.
But the polls suggest the vote could leave Ireland facing the instability of a minority government, a larger coalition that includes a number of independent deputies or another election.
Kenny's Fine Gael party has the support of 28 percent of voters, according to an Irish Times/IPSOS MRBI poll published on Thursday. That's down two percentage points since the newspaper's last poll, in November. Labour is unchanged on 7 percent.
Centre-right opposition party Fianna Fail gained two percentage points to 21 percent.
Left-wing nationalists Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, lost two points to 19 percent.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fall have each said they would not form a coalition with the other.
Both parties have also ruled out joining with Sinn Fein.
Twenty-five percent of voters said they would support independent candidates or other small parties, according to the poll of 1,200 voters held on Monday and Tuesday.
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