Exit poll, how did you vote? (54)

Ok, thats me voted!

Gave my first two prefrences to Norris and Higgins, shalt say in which order Solely for their interests in the arts and culture which IS a role I believe the president can realistically undertake (lets face it, the president cant turn the country around, stop the bank bailout, create jobs or win back the six counties )

early tallies are suggesting michael d is polling very strongly

So am I. Look at my pic Jimbo!

Hi Jimbo hope your well bud!

Michael D looks strong at the moment i would agree..

As long as Gay Mitchell, Dana or Gallagher dont get in ill be happy enough..

i wonder if the e-voting machines worked would we have a result by now...

yeah same here id be happy enough to keep gallagher out especially, good result for mcguinness and congrats to michael d he will be a good president i think

oh we would have had a result within an hour but that would take the fun out of it

I agree! To be fair he is very likeable and has not put a single foot wrong the whole campaign! He knows what he is talking about too and can answer any question put to him, very well spoken and seems to be charismatic and has a good sense of humour, i wish him well in office! But its also good to see Sinn Fein slowly but surely getting back into the game!

Heres the Live Update from the RTE news website as of 12:47, Micheal D seems to have it in the bag from these.

Live updates:

1239 Tally from Cavan-Monaghan (with 53% of boxes open): Gallagher 42%; Higgins & McGuinness at 21%; Mitchell 8%; Norris 3%; Scallon 3%; Davis 2%

1238 100% of boxes open in Dublin West. Tallies: Labour at 25%, Fianna Fáil at 22%; Socialist Party at 20%, Fine Gael at 15%, Sinn Féin at 8%, Green Party at 5% and Independents at 4%. First count expected at 2pm.

1230 A specially extended News At One will be on air from 1230-1400 - Listen live here

1225 Tallies in Louth, Gallagher's home county, put Higgins leading the poll with 35%. Gallagher is second with 29%. 46% of the boxes have been opened there.

1222 With 36% of boxes open in Tipperary North, tallies put Higgins at 34%; Gallagher at 37%; McGuinness at 11%; Mitchell at 9%; Norris on 4%; Scallon on 3% and Davis on 2%

1219 Almost all boxes have been opened at the Waterford count at this stage and Presiding Officer Niall Rooney is confident of a first count by 3.30pm.

Higgins stands a front-runner in the race for the Áras: latest tally figures are putting him at 36.5%, followed closely by Gallagher on 33.2%. About two thirds of these would be rural votes, the remainder urban.

1218 With 45% of boxes open in Kerry South, tally puts Higgins at 39%; Gallagher at 31%; McGuinness at 14%; Mitchell at 7%; Norris and Scallon at 4% and Davis at 2%

1213 Kerry North-West Limerick tally - with 47% of boxes open - puts Higgins at 42%; Gallagher at 26%; McGuinness at 17%; Mitchell at 5%; Norris and Scallon at 4% and Davis at 2%.

1157 Speaking on RTÉ Radio this morning, David Norris said he was quite certain that the next President will be Michael D Higgins and he wanted to send him his love and congratulations.

When you have such a concentration of power in the hands of the coalition, he said, it is good to have someone who will speak out on behalf of the marginalised.

He said it had been a bruising campaign and said some of the comments made about him in the media were less than charitable.

However, he said he had been collecting apologies in the newspapers in the past couple of days and that they told the truth in the end.

yeah well said, he should do us proud, it's progress for sinn fein with the locals just under 2 years away they should make big gains in that

Not with SF getting just 8% in Dublin West. In a low turnout election a famous polerising figure like McGuinness will always do well, as what support he has will defo come out and vote, but the by-election result is probably closer to the true story. Everyone is invested in a by-election

Interesting titbit from the RET polling

1249 More than a quarter of voters changed their mind about who to give their first preference vote to in the final week of the Presidential campaigning - with Gallagher losing more than half of those.

According to a Red C Recall Poll for RTÉ News, 28% of voters switched their first preference in the final week, of whom 58% switched from Gallagher, the vast majority opting to support Higgins instead.

I love being more or less right on that...

i disagree on that, dublin west already had 2 strong leftish candidates, and ff put a huge effort into getting out a vote which they did, if you look around the country you see a steady if slow growth of sf in this and the general election, with the locals to come in 2013 im sure we will see more growth