Election campaign begins on November 29 after dissolution of Parliament in Ireland

The Irish president dissolved the lower house of parliament on Friday, kicking off the campaign for a November 29 general election that will be dominated by immigration and the housing crisis.

“The time has come to ask the Irish people for a new mandate,” Prime Minister Simon Harris, of the center-right Fine Gael party, said before asking President Michael Higgins to dissolve the Dáil, the lower house of parliament.

“Over the next three weeks, I will be asking for your mandate to remain prime minister,” Harris, 38, said.

Harris’s party is a big favorite to secure a fourth term in power. On Wednesday he announced he was setting the election for November 29, although he had until March to call it.

During the previous term, Fine Gael shared power with Fianna Fáil, another party of the same trend, and the post of Prime Minister rotated between leaders of both parties.

The small Green party was also part of the government coalition that left out the leftist Sinn Féin party despite being the party with the most votes in the 2020 elections.

The BBC estimated on 21 October, “The leaders of the three parties in the Irish government have agreed that general elections will be held in 2024. They should be called before the mandate ends in March 2025.”

In elections held four years ago, Fine Gael, in power since 2011, came third behind Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.

Harris replaced her own party’s Leo Varadkar, who resigned as prime minister in April.

Since taking office, Harris, who is very active on social media, has revitalized Fine Gael, leading to strong gains in opinion polls.

Instead, Sinn Féin has fallen in the polls and is now in third place behind Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Analysts believe that one of the unknowns in these elections is whether Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are able to obtain a majority without resorting to a third party as in 2020.

PMU-PSR/JVB