Independents will be the “clear winner” at the polls in tomorrow’s local elections, according to Ivan Yates.

The former Fine Gael minister and Newstalk presenter predicts that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will both lose seats, while Sinn Féin will make sizeable gains.

Some 949 seats are up for grabs in tomorrow’s local elections, across 166 electoral areas and 31 local authorities.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Yates said he has a fair idea of how it will play out for the major parties.

“Fianna Fáil got nearly 27% of the vote last time and I think they’ll get 20% of the vote this time, which is higher than polls put them at, and I’d say they’ll just scrape 200 seats,” he said.

“Fine Gael had 255, they got 25% of the vote and I think they’ll go down to 20%. If they scraped 200 seats, I think they’d take the hand off ya.

“Sinn Féin were sky high in the polls last time but had a bad day and only had 81 elected, but I could see them having 170 or 180 this time.”

A polling station: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

The broadcaster thinks the “clear winner" of tomorrow's local elections will be independents.

“They go in with 207 and I think they’ll come out with north of 300," he said.

“They are such an assortment; I’ve seen them polling at 24%, 28%, but polls are in the dock here so far as we haven’t had a real election.

“They got it really wrong on the referendums, bookies and polls; we just need to treat some of this with caution.”

European Parliament elections

Mr Yates, who hosts the Path to Power podcast with Matt Cooper, said European Parliament seats are hard to call and the top three parties will call it a success if they get a candidate elected in each constituency.

He said six candidates are in contention in Dublin:

“Lynn Boylan, Barry Andrews, Regina Doherty, Niall Boylan, Clare Daly and Ciaran Cuffe,” he said.

“There are 23 candidates so there’s a lot of transfers and people like Barry Andrews and Regina Doherty could struggle there as they have no running mate.

“I’m starting to think Clare Daly will edge Niall Boylan and each of the parties will get their seat.”

Midlands North West

Mr Yates predicts a good day out for independents in Midlands North West.

“I think Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan will get in and I think Ciaran Mullooly will get in,” he said.

“[Chris] McManus is the strongest Sinn Féin candidate, Barry Cowen is the strongest for Fianna Fáil and Maria Walsh is stronger for Fine Gael than Nina Carberry.”

Ireland South

The former Fine Gael minister predicts Kathleen Funchion (Sinn Féin) Billy Kelleher (Fianna Fáil) and Seán Kelly (Fine Gael) will all be elected in Ireland South.

He said independent Michael McNamara also seems likely to be elected, with the remaining fifth seat being too hard to call.

Main image: Ivan Yates on local elections. Image: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland