Prime Minister Ahern of Ireland called a general election for May 24, seeking to extend his 10 years in office into a third term.

Mr. Ahern, 55, asked President McAleese to dissolve the country’s parliament, his Dublin-based party Fianna Fail said in a statement yesterday. The new parliament will meet June 14.

Mr. Ahern, Ireland’s longest-serving leader in almost 50 years, is banking on rising employment and incomes in the euro area’s fastest growing economy to help his coalition government win reelection. While he’s also cut taxes and increased spending, opposition politicians say he’s fueled inflation and failed to reduce overcrowding in hospitals and schools.

“The people have a real choice and two very different alternatives before them,” Mr. Ahern said in the statement. “That choice will frame Ireland’s future, and the consequences of this election will be felt for many years to come.”

The coalition government, made up of Mr. Ahern’s Fianna Fail Party and the Progressive Democrats, was first elected in 1997 and won a second term in 2002. Both the government and opposition parties have already laid out their economic plans if successful in the election.

Those pledges include lowering income tax rates, while the opposition Fine Gael and Labour also said they will cut stamp duty, a tax on property, to help first-time home buyers.

The opposition alliance is ahead of the ruling coalition, according to a poll published by the Irish Times on April 27.

Forty-one percent of those polled said they back the opposition alliance, while 37% support the governing coalition, which includes the Progressive Democrats, the newspaper said. The Greens, who haven’t said which alliance they will support, fell two percentage points to 6%.