Polling booths nationwide shut their doors at 10pm on Friday for the referendums concerning family and care, amidst government concerns over sluggish voting patterns potentially influencing the outcome. Unsettling rumours within government circles questioned if the voter turnout would even achieve 40 per cent, leading some to accept the possibility that either, or both, referendums might not pass due to minimal voter participation.
In these referendums, the government’s proposal includes broadening the constitutional definition of a family to acknowledge “enduring relationships”, like those of cohabiting couples and their children. Furthermore, it also aims to substitute the dated terminology referring to “women in the home” with wording recognising familial care responsibilities.
The vote counts commences at 9am today, followed by the separate result announcements – the amending declaration for families coming first and then the one about care.
Stay with us for real-time updates from counting centres all over the nation.
What is known about the voter turnout? Only about quarter of the Dublin city’s electorate had participated in the vote by early yesterday evening. However, in Galway, the turnout supposedly ranged between 29 per cent and 41 per cent by 8.30pm.
In the late hours of Friday, reports indicated variations in turnout from 37 per cent to 46 per cent in the Dún Laoghaire constituency. Meanwhile, approximately about 42 per cent of votes were cast in Wicklow-Arklow by 7.30pm. The combined Bray-Greystones’ area in Co Wicklow experienced a turnout of 47.9 per cent towards the close of the day.
By contrast, an earlier referendum that was marked by a low turnout was the children’s rights vote, which nevertheless passed despite barely a third of voters turning up. The approval rating of 57.4 per cent that it received was below predictions.
Friday’s turnout will likely be meagre compared to 60.5 per cent of the electorate that participated in the same-sex marriage referendum or the 64.1 per cent that voted on repealing the Eighth Amendment on abortion.