BREAKING: Kildare votes overwhelmingly for Catherine Connolly to be next president
Significant number of spoiled votes in Kildare South
Kildare has endorsed Catherine Connolly to be the next president, succeeding two time officer holder Michael D Higgins.
She will the third woman to hold the office.
An unofficial tally of 82.6% of boxes in Kildare North showed that 63% of the electorate voted for the Galway politician with 28.3% turning out for Heather Humphries.
Jim Gavin, who pulled out of the race, but whose name remained on the ticket anyway, had the support of 8.7% of the electorate.
Some 10.54% of people who turned up at the polling stations of Friday spoiled their vote, again based on tally figures.
In Kildare South more votes were counted in the tally, making the predicted outcome a little more accurate.
Here, Connolly took 65.4% of the vote with Humphreys taking 26.9%. Jim Gavin's support was pitched at 7.7%.
The spoiled votes in Kildare South were significantly higher - 15.23%