Polls paint mixed picture for Irish PM ahead of election

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny's conservative party halted a recent slide in popularity according to one opinion poll on Saturday, but fell sharply in another, maintaining the potential for an inconclusive outcome at upcoming elections. Ireland votes on Feb. 26 in what promises to be a tight contest that opinion polls suggest may fail to produce a stable government. Kenny's Fine Gael, whose support had risen steadily all year until a slight dip as the election campaign was about to begin, rose two percentage points to 31 percent in the Sunday Business Post/Red C poll, five points behind its 2011 election mark. However it fell three points to 28 percent in the Sunday Times/Behaviour & Attitudes survey. Kenny will need the backing of junior coalition partners Labour to return to power. Labour held steady on 10 percent in the Red C survey and was two points higher than previously, at 8 percent, according to the Behaviour & Attitudes findings. At a combined 41 percent in the more favorable poll, the parties would be six seats short of the 80 needed to secure a majority, according to Adrian Kavanagh, a politics lecturer at National University of Ireland, Maynooth who analyses each poll. However another closely watched poll on Thursday put their support substantially lower on 35 percent. Kenny's party's improvement in the Red C poll was at the expense of left-wing challenger Sinn Fein, which fell two points to 17 percent, level in second place with the center-right Fianna Fail. Sinn Fein was on the same mark in the Behaviour & Attitudes poll, while Fianna Fail was unchanged on 20 percent. Red C analyst Richard Colwell said that with 25 percent of so-called "floating" voters trusting Fine Gael on the economy in its survey versus low single-digits for the other main parties, Kenny's party has the potential to gain further support. Fine Gael, which has had a shaky start to the campaign, is banking on the government getting credit for the turnaround it has overseen in Europe's fastest growing economy while opponents are seizing on what many see as an uneven recovery. With no obvious alternative, if the coalition parties fail to gain the added support needed or come close enough to cobble together a majority with independents or smaller parties, that may spell a period of political instability or fresh elections. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Andrew Bolton)