After a fractious and unpredictable presidential election campaign, voters will go to the polls on Friday to elect Ireland’s 10th president, with Independent candidate Catherine Connolly now the overwhelming favourite to win handsomely.
There are widespread fears of a historically low turnout, even lower than the 44 per cent at the last election, and both Ms Connolly and the Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys on Thursday urged people to exercise their right to vote.
Some 3,612,957 are entitled to vote on Friday, according to the Electoral Commission. Polling stations will open at 7am and remain open until 10pm.
Counting of votes will begin on Saturday morning at 9am at count centres across the country, with the nationwide results aggregated later at the national centre in Dublin Castle. A result is expected in the afternoon.
The final day of campaigning saw another opinion poll, this time from the Irish Independent/Ireland Thinks, which suggested Ms Connolly continues to hold a commanding lead in run-in to polling day.
Excluding undecided voters, the poll predicted a first-count win for Ms Connolly, with 56 per cent of the vote.
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Speaking about the strong opinion poll performance on Thursday, Ms Connolly said: “It’s wonderful for my team but we take absolutely nothing for granted.”
She told reporters at St Anne’s National School in Co Roscommon: “I would appeal to everyone to come out and vote.
“To be president of Ireland is an absolute privilege and I leave that to the people of Ireland.”
On her final full day of campaigning after three months, Ms Connolly focused on the west of Ireland. At the primary school in Castlerea students put on Irish dancing displays and performed a number of songs, including Ireland’s Call, for the presidential hopeful.
Ms Humphreys struck a defiant note on the stump in Sligo and Donegal.
Speaking to supporters, she said: “It is so important we get that vote out tomorrow. Because I don’t believe one bit in those polls, don’t mind those polls. Tomorrow is the poll.”
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Fine Gael leader and Tánaiste Simon Harris sent out a “particular appeal to people from other political traditions” to lend their vote to Ms Humphreys as he joined her canvassing, adding: “She won’t let you down.”
Speaking at an event in Donegal, he said: “The polls said Michael D Higgins was never going to be president – he won the election, he won twice and he did a very good job.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to defy all the sceptics, and we’re going to elect Heather Humphreys the 10th president of Ireland – but only with your help.”
Mr Harris told Fine Gael members in Ballyshannon: “Tomorrow it’s important that middle Ireland comes out and says ‘we don’t want to send out a message about this country being far left’. This country is not far left. This is a centrist country with lots of middle ground people and Heather Humphreys epitomises that.”
Earlier, at the Irish Country Living Women and Agriculture Conference in Rosses Point, Ms Humphreys told local media she had a “great campaign”, adding: “One thing I have learned is that we have a wonderful country and we should be very proud of it.”
But a victory for Ms Humphreys would be the political shock of the age.
Earlier, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy called on voters to come “and help deliver a trouncing of the political establishment and a victory for a united left”.
Mr Murphy said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want people who are disillusioned or angry with the political establishment to “stay at home or to spoil their vote”.