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Thousands march in central London to oppose nuclear arms

DUBLIN (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Irish election. (all times local): 5:30 p.m. With early Irish election results pointing to the possibility of a historic Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition government, leading Irish lawmakers are warning that such a partnership would be fraught with difficulty. Agriculture and Defense Minister Simon Coveney, a leading Fine Gael member, said it would be "difficult to form a coalition with two parties of similar size that are competing with each other in many ways." Fianna Fail's Willie O'Dea, a lawmaker from Limerick and a former Irish defense minister, says bringing Ireland's two traditional heavyweight political parties together would leave the main opposition to Sinn Fein, the political ally of the Irish Republican Army. He says that would make Sinn Fein a more dangerous foe. Sinn Fein was running a strong third in Saturday's voting results. O'Dea says "I'd be extremely nervous about putting Sinn Fein in pole position in the opposition." ___ 4:20 p.m. Micheal Martin, the leader of Ireland's opposition Fianna Fail party, won't rule out forming a historic coalition with the governing Fine Gael party as official results from Friday's election start to trickle in. Martin, whose centrist party has never shared power with longtime nemesis Fine Gael, was asked Saturday whether he would talk to Prime Minister Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael chief, about a first-ever partnership. The two parties trace their origins to opposite sides of Ireland's 1922-23 civil war. Martin says "we're committed to doing our best by the country and ensuring that the country gets a good government." He adds that any successful coalition negotiation "has to be very much focused on the issues and on policies, and not just on numbers" of seats in parliament. ___ 4 p.m. The first official winner of a seat in Ireland's next parliament, Shane Ross, says he's open to propping up the next government — so long as it's interested in drastically changing its economic policies. Ross, an incumbent independent who has opposed the government's austerity and bank-bailout policies, won the first seat in the Dublin district of Rathdown. He says he hopes to help form a powerful bloc of like-minded independents in Ireland's 158-seat parliament. He noted that for the first time in Irish history, the two traditional big guns of Irish politics — the governing Fine Gael and the opposition Fianna Fail parties — had attracted less than half of the popular vote. He said the political landscape is now open for mavericks like him to wield real influence over Ireland's next government coalition. Ross says "it looks today as though we've got a massive and very welcome change in Irish politics." ___ 3:40 p.m. With official Irish election results yet to trickle in, leaders of the governing Fine Gael and Labour parties say Ireland's voters have demonstrated that they want a change in government, with 60 percent or more of voters picking an array of other parties, mostly on the left of the political spectrum. Analysts poring over results compiled by election observers predict that Fine Gael will win fewer than 50 seats and Labour probably fewer than 10 in Ireland's 158-member parliament. A governing majority requires at least 79 lawmakers. Kevin Humphreys, a Labour lawmaker fighting to retain his seat in Dublin Bay South, says his left-wing party has "had a very bad day ... but we'll rebuild and come back." The first official winners are expected to be declared Saturday afternoon. ___ 7:30 a.m. A detailed exit poll for Ireland's election has found that most voters spurned the coalition government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the country faces either a hung parliament with no workable majority — or an alliance between the traditional polar opposites of political life. The poll by Irish broadcasters RTE was revealed hours ahead of Saturday's start to a ballot count expected to run into Sunday. The poll says Kenny's Fine Gael party has received 24.8 percent of first-preference votes — much lower than any opinion poll during Ireland's three-week election campaign — while the party's age-old enemy Fianna Fail has won 21.1 percent. The poll found that Sinn Fein received 16 percent of first-preference votes, sufficient to double its number of lawmakers — but not enough to give either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail a majority, even if either cut a deal with the Irish Republican Army-linked party.

The Latest: Some see Irish Fianna Fail-Fine Gael pact risky