Counting underway in presidential election
Counting in the election for Ireland’s ninth president is underway.
Voter turnout nationwide was reported to be about 50% despite a record seven candidates standing for the role.
The first results from the first counts in the 43 constituencies are expected early in the evening or, depending on the official turnout, later tonight.
First the ballots will be sorted so the referendums can be set aside for counting tomorrow, before actual counting of the Presidential votes gets underway.
Once each constituency has a first count result, not expected before this evening, it will be fed into the national count centre at Dublin Castle.
Once all 43 are in, the national returning officer will announce the ranking of the seven candidates and eliminate the lowest so the second count can begin.
While a formal declaration by the Presidential Returning Officer may not come through until Saturday, the voting pattern should be clear much earlier and the final outcome expected to be known late tonight.
The field was headed at the start of the week by opinion poll-topper Sean Gallagher, dogged in the final campaign days by controversy over his political fundraising past and financial transactions in his businesses.
Labour’s Michael D Higgins was running second with commentators suggesting he will benefit from questions over Mr Gallagher’s political background.
Gay Mitchell, candidate for the Government party Fine Gael, is not likely to poll strongly amid allegations that grassroots were not behind him.
Others in the race are Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, whose intervention in the last candidates’ debate brought the questions over Mr Gallagher’s past to the fore.
The also-rans look likely to be Senator David Norris, a former Trinity professor and Joycean scholar, Mary Davis, who headed Special Olympics Ireland, and Dana Rosemary Scallon, former Eurovision winner and Eurosceptic MEP.
The turnout was well below the high 70% seen at the February General Election.
About 3.1 million people were eligible to vote in the single transferable vote system, where the successful candidate needs 50% of the vote plus one.
The electorate was also being asked to vote on two referendums to make alterations to the Irish constitution.
One was on a proposal to beef up the powers of parliamentary committees in holding inquiries into matters of public interest, while the other would allow the Government to reduce the pay of judges.
Also, in west Dublin, voting took place to fill the seat of late former finance minister Brian Lenihan.
Ireland’s ninth president follows the respected two terms, totalling 14 years, of Mary McAleese. She leaves office on November 10 after a remarkable tenure marked by her “Building Bridges” theme and work on the peace process in the North.
The president’s residence, Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, was also opened to more guests and visitors than ever before.
