Newly released exit polls for the Presidential election suggests Michael D Higgins will be re-elected as the President of Ireland.
The poll by Ipsos MRBI for The Irish Times has the current President at 56% of first preference votes.
Peter Casey managed to gain some momentum as he was a clear second place in the poll with 21%.
Sinn Fein's choice of Liadh Ni Riada didn't appear to resonate with the electorate, as she polled a lowly 8%.
4,378 people were interviewed as they left the polling station having cast their ballots, with the results coming out as below:
Results of our exit poll with @IrishTimes. 4,378 voters interviewed as they exited polling stations throughout the day. pic.twitter.com/J3V78LKSHz
— Ipsos MRBI (@IpsosMRBI) 26 October 2018
Meanwhile, a second poll by Red C for RTE has President Higgins at 58%.
Contsistent with the poll for the Irish Times, Peter Casey enjoyed a surge late in the campaign to come out with 21%.
This poll was conducted with around 3500 people around the country.
First count re-election
These exit polls suggest President Higgins will be re-elected at the first count.
He would need over 50% of the vote, as that would mean none of the remaining candidates would be able to overtake him.
They imply that he will still be re-elected, despite a slight drop in compared to the more recent opinion polls last week.
Blasphemy referendum
People also took to the polls for a referendum on the reference to blasphemy in the Constitution.
Upon leaving the polling station, voters were asked if they wanted to remove the reference, or if they wanted to keep it.
After also interviewing voters on the referendum, both exit polls are suggesting it will comfortably pass.
The Irish Times poll has it at 69% YES, with RTE's poll stating that 71% have voted in favour of its removal.
Low turnout
It was reported that turnout was significantly lower than it was for the recent referendum to repeal the 8th amendment.
To put into context, the exit polls for the recent referendum were found to be close to the actual result.
Despite these polls, a single ballot hasn't been counted yet, and that will get underway tomorrow morning from 9am.
