Kenny looks certain to be taoiseach, or prime minister, after the ruling Fianna Fail Party of incumbent Brian Cowen suffered a crushing defeat by voters angry at the collapse of their once booming economy and the subsequent bailout.
But the 59-year-old Fine Gael leader told supporters in Dublin late Saturday there was “no time to lose, no hour to waste” as he confronted the challenges ahead, not least the form of the government he will lead.
Exit polls and early results suggest the centrist party will not win a majority in the 166-seat Dail, the lower house of parliament, and several top Fine Gael figures indicated a coalition with the opposition Labour Party was likely.
With 131 seats declared Sunday, Fine Gael had 59 seats, Labour had 31, Fianna Fail had just 14 and the republican Sinn Fein party had 13, including its president Gerry Adams, who entered the Dail for the first time.
Kenny said he would be looking at his party’s options Sunday but stressed he would be “deciding on this very quickly,” saying it was important to international markets that Ireland had a “stable and strong government.”
He also vowed to move fast on a key campaign pledge to renegotiate the 85-billion-euro ($115-billion) bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund in November, which many Irish see as a humiliation.
“We’re going to move on this next week, I’ve already had contacts with Europe this very day,” Kenny said in his first post-election TV interview.
