“Very slow” start to voting across Cavan and Monaghan

Polls remaining open until 10pm tonight. ** Follow our live election blog from the count centre in Ballyhaise tomorrow.

Voting across much of Cavan and Monaghan got off to a sluggish start this morning, with some count staff describing the early turnout as “low”, while others called it “very slow”.

In Virginia Town, for instance, just a single vote had been cast in one booth shortly before 9am, reflecting a wider pattern seen across both counties.

In Cavan Town, voting at St. Clare’s National School was also described as “very slow”, with just over 1% of registered voters having cast their ballots by early morning.

Elsewhere in Cavan, Bruskey’s two booths each reported a 2% turnout, while Virginia National School recorded a slightly higher 2.9% across six booths at 9am.

At St. Clare’s in Ballyjamesduff, 42 votes had been cast by 9am- around 2% of the electorate across five booths. In Belturbet, Booth One at the Boys’ School had seen only 14 of 491 voters turn out, or just under 3%.

In Monaghan, the trend was similarly subdued.

Clones Urban reported a 2% turnout across five booths by 9am, while Carrickmacross showed a modest improvement.

At Scoil Rois, Carrickmacross, turnout figures ranged from 3% to 4.77% across four booths covering the Ballymackney (4.77%), Carrickmacross Rural (3%), Carrickmacross Urban (4.5%), and Lough Fea (4.72%) electoral divisions.

In Monaghan Town, the Louis Girls’ National School reported a 2.9% turnout among 1,675 eligible voters across five booths.

Castleblayney meanwhile recorded 3% across eight booths, and at St. Louis National School (ED Lough Fea), turnout ranged from 2.17% to 4% across four booths.

In this election, three candidates were validly nominated- former Cavan-Monaghan Fine Gael TD and minister Heather Humphreys and Independent Catherine Connolly- though Fianna Fáil's Jim Gavin's name remains on the ballot paper- despite withdrawing from the race.

Voting is taking place at more than 5,500 polling stations across Ireland, and polls will remain open until 10am tonight.

Some 3.6 million people are eligible to vote, and in 2018, when Micheal D Higgins was returned to Áras an Uachtarain for a second term of seven years, the Cavan–Monaghan constituency recorded a voter turnout of 41.85%, slightly below the national average.

Counting begins the following morning, Saturday, October 25, with the Cavan-Monaghan constituency count taking place at Ballyhaise Agricultural College.

If no candidate meets the quota on first preferences come Saturday, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and their votes are transferred according to next preferences, with keen interest on seeing how any votes for Gavin could influence the final result.

An outcome is expected by Saturday evening and the new president will be formally inaugurated at Dublin Castle days after.

** Follow our live election blog from the count centre in Ballyhaise tomorrow.