Ahern begins his third term as Irish Prime Minister (Roundup)

Jun 14, 2007, 17:19 GMT

Dublin - Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern was sworn in by President Mary McAleese for a third term Thursday after being re-elected in the lower house or Dail in Dublin.

Ahern, whose Fianna Fail party won the largest number of seats in the May 24 election, received 89 votes from the assembled MPs, while the other main contender, Enda Kenny of the main opposition Fine Gael party, won 76.

Thursday's vote followed the conclusion of a coalition deal late Wednesday between Fianna Fail and the Green Party, which voted to join a government coalition by a large majority.

Party leader Trevor Sargent stepped down after the vote, choosing to abandon his post rather than enter a FF government. Two-thirds of the votes were required in order to accept a draft deal hammered out between the FF and the Greens.

The FF won the largest number of seats in the May 24 election but fell short of an overall majority. Ahern also approached five independents to secure a bigger majority.

The six seats won by the Greens add to FF's 78 and the two remaining seats that existing coalition partners the Progressive Democrats (PDs) managed to hold on to after their vote collapsed to give a slim majority in the 166-seat Dail.

The Green Party had expressed concerns about entering government with the liberal free-marketeer PDs, and had aligned itself during the election campaign with the opposition Fine Gael and Labour parties in a so-called 'alliance for change.'

The results in the May 24 election were: FF 78 seats, Fine Gael 51, Labour 20, Greens six, independents five, Sinn Fein - the political wing of the dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) - four, and the Progressive Democrats two.