Irish general election: Counting to begin across the country

Counting begins on Sunday morning in the Irish general election as an exit poll put the three main political parties tied in first preference votes.

Ballot boxes from across the 39 constituencies will be opened at 09:00 local time.

Indications from the exit poll suggest there is little difference in percentage terms between Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.

Polling in the election closed at 22:00 on Saturday.

There will be live page coverage of the election results on the BBC News NI website from 12:00 GMT on Sunday.

The exit poll – commissioned jointly by Irish national broadcasters RTÉ and TG4, as well as The Irish Times and University College Dublin – indicates that Fine Gael – led by Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar – secured 22.4% of first preference votes, closely followed by Sinn Féin (22.3%) and Fianna Fáil (22.2%).

The poll suggest the parties may be equal in terms of percentages, but this will not translate into seats.

Ireland’s elections are carried out under the proportional representation (PR) voting system, using the single transferable vote (STV). Voters wrote “1” opposite their first choice candidate, “2” opposite their second choice, “3” opposite their third choice and so on.

This means that the picture presented when the first preference votes are counted does not completely reflect the final outcome.

Sinn Féin also ran 42 candidates across the 39 multi-seat constituencies, about half that of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, which will have an impact on the number of seats it can secure.

The exit poll also suggests the Green Party secured 7.9% of first preference votes, followed by Labour (4.6%), Social Democrats (3.4%), Solidarity People Before Profit (2.8%).

Indications are that Independents took 11.2% of first preference votes.

The poll suggests a move toward Sinn Féin among younger voters, with the party receiving the largest number of first preference votes among 18-24 years olds (31.8%).

The majority of voters over the age of 65 appear to have given their first preference to Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil

There is a margin of error of 1.3% in either direction in the exit poll.

RTÉ said voting appears to have been “solid”.

However, there is no expectation of a spike in voting compared to 2016, despite it being the first ever Saturday general election vote.

Factors that may have affected turnout include the poor weather and international rugby.

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AFP/BEN STANSALL

A total of 160 representatives will be returned to the Dáil (Irish parliament) and newly elected TDs will gather on 20 February .

The ceann comhairle, or speaker, is automatically re-elected.

In most situations, the speaker does not vote, so a government will need 80 TDs to hold a majority.

• Profile of Ireland’s political parties
• Polls open for first-ever Saturday general election vote

It is unlikely that any party will reach that number, so another coalition government is probable.

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AFP

People living on 12 islands off the coasts of counties Galway, Mayo and Donegal voted on Friday.

Legislation to allow islanders to vote on the same day as other voters had not been passed by the time the general election was called.

Traditionally, islanders have voted ahead of the rest of the country to ensure that bad weather does not hamper the return of ballot boxes to the mainland in time for the count, which will start on Sunday.

About 2,100 island residents were eligible to vote.

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Niall Carson