Polling stations opened across Ireland on Friday morning, with 174 seats in 43 constituencies in the country's parliament being contested and three major parties neck-and-neck in survey polls.
There are 14 more seats up for grabs compared to the previous election, with nearly 700 candidates running.
The polling stations will close at 22:00 on Friday, and vote counting will begin the following day.
According to the latest poll by Ireland's Business Post, Fianna Fail, the country's dominant political party, holds a slight lead with 21 percent support, while Fine Gael and Sinn Fein both have 20 percent support, showing a tight race between the three parties.
The narrow margin in the polls indicates that any of the parties could emerge on top, with the outcome certain to impact the formation of the government.
The last Irish parliamentary election took place in February 2020, with Fianna Fail securing the most parliamentary seats. The main opposition party, Sinn Fein, which came in second, achieved a historic result in the 2020 election, securing 37 parliamentary seats.
In June 2020, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and the Green Party formed a coalition government, which is now led by Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris.
Voting opens in competitive Irish parliamentary election
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context and the requirement of the times.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the requirement in an instruction on the project of studying and developing Marxist theory in the new era.
Xi said the project of studying and developing Marxist theory is a basic and strategic one for strengthening the Communist Party theoretically. Over the past 20 years, the project has achieved many high-quality results, and played an important role in aspects including studying and publicizing the Party's new theories and consolidating the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain.
Xi stressed efforts to uphold fundamental principles and break new ground on the new journey of the new era, focus on studying, publicizing and implementing the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deepen systematic research and interpretation that elevate practical experience and understanding into academic and theoretical knowledge, and help the people better embrace the Party's new theories with more targeted and effective study and publicity.
Xi urged endeavor to stick to adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China's specific realities and its fine traditional culture, carry out in-depth study on the major questions discovered in the practice of building China into a great country and moving toward national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, speed up the building of a Chinese intellectual system in philosophy and social sciences, and train high-quality human resources for theoretical development, so as to make greater contributions to adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the requirement of the times.
A work meeting on the project of studying and developing Marxist theory was held in Beijing on Friday.
The meeting conveyed Xi's instruction.
Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, was present at the meeting and delivered a speech.
Cai called for efforts to deepen research on the basic tenets of Marxism for in-depth answers to China's specific and practical questions, and sum up original theories, while improving institutions and mechanisms and fostering a sound academic atmosphere in this regard.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.
State Councilor Shen Yiqin was present at the meeting.
Xi urges more efforts to adapt Marxism to Chinese context, requirement of times
