Count begins in Punchestown as Higgins looks set for another term as President

The count for the 2018 Presidential Election has begun in Punchestown this morning.

The voter turnout was relatively low across Kildare throughout yesterday, as it was in most other areas of the country, especially in comparison to recent referendums on same sex marriage and the Eighth Amendment.

A Red Sea Poll published on last night's Late Late Show showed that Michael D Higgins will be re-elected to his position as president as he attained 58.1 pc of the vote in the polls, but all the talk revolved around Dragons' Den panelist Peter Casey, who has accumulated 20.7 pc of the vote according to the poll.

Casey has been the most outspoken candidate by far, with his comments on the travelling community rallying up support for his campaign. The polls also show that the other four candidates will be left sharing the final 20 pc of the votes, with Liadh Ní Riada garnering 7.4 pc in that particular poll. Candidates need to achieve at least 12.5 pc of the overall vote to claim any money back from the State that would have been spent on their campaign.