Main pic: Presiding Officer Caroline Sharkey and Garda Ronn Steed make their way with a ballot box for those casting votes on Gola island. Pic: RTE News.
Voting in the General Election is underway across Donegal, with polls having opened at 7am and remaining open until 10pm tonight.
Around the county this lunchtime, there was an average turnout of 13-14% in urban stations around Buncrana, Letterkenny and Stranorlar, with 15% recorded in Donegal town.
However, that is said to have increased in the afternoon and will rise further with the predicted ‘evening rush.’
Meanwhile, there was a slightly lower showing in the chunk of south Donegal that is included in the Sligo-Leitrim Constituency, averaging 10% in Bundoran, Ballyshannon and Ballintra this afternoon.
There are a total of 20 candidates contesting five seats in the Donegal Constituency, eight more than last time around.
According to polls carried out by TG4 and the Tirconaill Tribune, Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty has a clear lead. However, it could be a tight race to see who the four other successful candidates will be.
There are 131,306 people registered to vote in Donegal, the highest electorate in the country.
That figure represents a 4.3% increase on the 2020 poll, which saw a turnout of 62%.
Nine electoral divisions in Ballintra, Ballyshannon and Bundoran are in the Sligo Leitrim constituency, a four seater.
An Coimisiún Toghcháin is advising people to only use numbers when filling out the ballot paper so as not to spoil it.
Half a million people live in different constituencies to where they would have been for the last General Election.
You do not need to have your polling information card with you when you go to vote.
However, you should bring a 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.
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