The General Election is taking place in Ireland today.
If you’re at least 18 years old and registered to vote, now is the time to get out there and use your vote to elect the next members of Dáil Éireann.
If you’re already registered, your details (including your constituency) should be on the electoral register, which you can check online here.
Voting takes place from 7am to 10pm at polling places, which are typically located in primary schools and community centres.
The candidate the voter most wants to see elected should be given a ‘1’ beside their name and picture, and that will indicate that the chosen candidate has received their “first preference vote.”
A “2” is given to the voter’s second-favourite candidate, and so on, until the voter decides they no longer wish to provide any preference to any of the remaining candidates.
You don’t need ID to vote, but if you’re not on the electoral register, you may need proof of identity and address.
There are a total of 174 seats in the Dáil to be filled – more than ever before.
There are 686 candidates in the running, and 246 of them are women.
To see who is running in your area, you can click here and select your constituency.
In a Dáil of 174 TDs, a party would need at least 88 TDs elected to win a majority to form a government.
However, no single party has enough candidates to win a majority in the next Dáil.
This will lead to a coalition of parties, but who will be in this coalition is yet to be determined.
Here’s how many candidates each party is running:
Fianna Fáil (82)
Fine Gael (80)
Sinn Féin (71)
Aontú (43)
Green Party (43)
People Before Profit-Solidarity (42)
Labour Party (32)
Independent Ireland (28)
Social Democrats (26)
Irish People (21)
Irish Freedom Party (16)
National Party (9)
Liberty Republic (6)
Centre Party of Ireland (3)
Independents 4 Change (3)
Party for Animal Welfare (3)
Rabharta (3)
Ireland First (2)
100% Redress (1)
Right to Change (1)
If you’re still unsure about who to vote for, WhichCandidate.ie is a handy website to help you make your choice.
Through simple questions and answers, it allows you to compare candidates based on their positions on issues of national importance.
