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Ciaran McInerney casts his vote beside Hugh O'Donald, presiding officer, during voting on Inishfree Island this morning. Peter Morrison/AP
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Daily Fix: Wednesday

With the first votes cast in the 2011 general election, here’s our penultimate daily look at the winners and losers of the day.

EVERY evening, TheJournal.ie brings your Daily Fix: our pick of the highlights (and some of the lows) of today’s campaign trail.

GOOD DAY FOR:

  • Fine Gael – The last opinion poll of the election campaign puts the party on 40 per cent, and within touching distance of the elusive overall majority. With Labour on 18 and Fianna Fáil on 15, a good turnout on Friday will ensure a single-party government.
  • Eimear Ní Chaonala – Our poll asking readers to pick the best moderator of the four who oversaw the leaders’ debates gives the TG4 hostess a firm victory.
  • Youth - We asked some of the youngest candidates representing each party why they were running for election this year. The responses are stirringly genuine… and most of them still love their Mammies too. Ah, bless.

BAD DAY FOR:

  • Shoeleather – The shoes of most of Ireland’s political leaders got a bit of a pounding today; our tally put the total distance travelled by the leaders today at nearly 1300km – and that wasn’t including Gerry Adams’ tour to Dublin, which Sinn Féin’s press office forgot to tell us about when we asked. (A bad day for the environment, too, unless they’re all driving hybrids… but John Gormley only travelled 400m today.)
  • Broadcasters – The moratorium kicks in at 2pm tomorrow – what on earth are they going to fill their programming with?

LAST-MINUTE PRESS CURVEBALL OF THE DAY:

Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath: “Surprise and Suspicion at FG Flannery’s re-emergence as frontline spokesperson”. The opening paragraphs, reproduced without comment, were as follows:

Fianna Fáil Dublin South Central TD Michael Mulcahy has today expressed “considerable surprise at Frank Flannery’s re-emergence as frontline spokesperson for Fine Gael. Now that there is much speculation about FG seeking to form a Government without Labour, people will wonder whether Mr Flannery is poised to reprise his role as the person tasked with seeking a deal with Sinn Féin.”

Frank Flannery is reported to have made approaches to Sinn Féin with a view to forming a Government in the aftermath of the 2007 election.

‘NEVER WORK WITH KIDS’ MOMENT OF THE DAY:

Here’s Enda Kenny canvassing on the northside of Dublin today. Again, we’ll let the pictures – by Stephen Kilkenny – do the talking.

Daily Fix: Wednesday
1 / 3
  • Enda Kenny in Dublin (1)

  • Enda Kenny in Dublin (2)

  • Enda Kenny in Dublin (3)

DIY ELECTION LITERATURE OF THE DAY

This is the election leaflet of John Keigher, a Ranelagh barrister contesting the election in Dublin South East. Dropped through TheJournal.ie‘s home letterbox last night, it’s a phenomenal antidote to the overglossed stuff voters are being bombarded with from other candidates.

Click here to download the two-page PDF, and enjoy.

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