Just under 65,000 people are entitled to vote in tomorrow’s Presidential Election as the nation goes to the polls to decide who will replace Michael D Higgins.
Independent Catherine Connolly, Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys and Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin are the three names on the ballot paper though Gavin pulled out of the contest over two weeks ago.
As it stands, according to a succession of polls, Connolly – who has been an Independent TD for Galway since 2016 and was first elected as a Galway city councillor in 1999 – is on course for a dominant victory.
It would make for a significant victory for the alliance of left-leaning parties and groupings with Connolly’s campaign backed initially by a selection of Independent TDs in the Dáil, including Laois’s Brian Stanley.
Stanley has been a colleague of Connolly’s in the Dáil’s Independents and Smaller Parties technical grouping since last year’s General Election.
Connolly has since been supported by Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Greens.
In total, the Laois electorate is 64,816 and there are a total of 47 polling stations across the county. Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm tomorrow, Friday, October 24.
As it did in last year’s General Election, counting of votes in Laois will take place again in the Nagle Rice sports complex on the Portlaoise CBS/Scoil Chríost Rí complex in Portlaoise with Rory Hanniffy once again acting as Returning Officer.
It’s understood that a partial tally will be carried out by some local political activists in Laois on Saturday which will be able to give an idea of how a selection of local areas voted.
The Laois votes will be separated and counted and when a 1st count result is confirmed, that will be sent to the Central Count Centre in Dublin Castle.
Nationally, the 1st count will only be confirmed when all 43 constituency counts have been finalised.
If a candidate hasn’t reached the quota, a 2nd count will commence in the constituencies across the country. With three names on the ballot paper, a maximum of two counts is all that will be required. If a candidate exceeds 50% of the vote on the 1st count, they will be duly elected without the need for a 2nd count.
With just two active candidates, turnout is expected to be low. National turnout was at just 43.9% in 2018 when Michael D Higgins was elected for a second term which was then a record low.
That compares to 56.1% in 2011 when he was elected for the first time. Turnout was only 47.6% in 1997 when Mary McAleese was elected while it was over 64% in 1990 for Mary Robinson’s historic election.
Turnout in Laois at last year’s General Election was 58.5% while it was 50.75% for last year’s Local Elections.
However, the electorate for this presidential election is lower than what it was for either of last year’s with a suggestion that the electorate commission’s figures are now closer to reality with the removal of many duplicates.
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