Following months of campaigning by candidates across the country, today (Friday, June 7) will see the electorate have their say as voting gets underway in three elections.
Polls for the local and European elections and the historic contest to elect a mayor for Limerick opened at 7:00a.m and will close at 10:00p.m.
This marks the first national election in the country in over four years.
Elections
In the local elections, the number of councillors to be elected nationally is 949 across 166 electoral areas in Ireland.
There are 31 local authorities in Ireland, which includes county councils and city councils, each divided into local electoral areas.
Each local electoral area has a specified number of council seats to be filled in the election.
More than 2,100 candidates are running in the local elections across the country.
The electorate will be asked to select 14 MEPs to represent Ireland in the EU Parliament for the next five years, which is one more MEP than in the 2019 elections.
Ireland is divided into three constituencies for European elections: Dublin (4 MEPs), South (5 MEPs) and Midlands North-West (5 MEPs).
People living in Limerick are also due to select the country’s first directly elected mayor in today’s election.
Voting
The Electoral Commission has said that people do not need to have their polling information card with them when they go to vote.
However, the commission advises that everyone should bring some valid form of personal identification such as a passport, a driving licence, a public services card, or an employee or student identity card with a photograph.
A voter might not be asked for proof of identity, but if they are asked for it, they need to show it in order to cast their ballot.
The ballot paper will show a list of names, in alphabetical order, party emblems and images of each candidate.
There will be a box to the right of each candidates name, a voter can mark their preference for each candidate in the box to the right.
Mark a ‘1’ in the box beside your first choice candidate and, if you wish, a ‘2’ in the box beside your second choice candidate, a ‘3’ in the box beside your third choice candidate, and so on.
Counting of votes
In Ireland, we use an electoral system know as proportional representation with a single transferable vote PR-STV. You can find out more about this system by clicking here.
Ballot boxes will be opened in count centres across the country tomorrow morning (Saturday, June 8).
Votes will be sorted and verified before counting gets underway in the local elections.
The count in the European elections will get underway on Sunday (June 9), while the count for the Limerick mayor is due to commence on Monday (June 10).