Turnout better in rural areas than town

In Westmeath, it looks as if Mullingar might end up at around 40 per cent or into the early 40s, but in rural areas, there are higher percentage turnouts - with one box, at Taughmon NS - registering in the mid 50s at the moment.

Mullingar's turnout has improved somewhat after looking pretty grim all day.

As of 8.30pm, at St Mary's NS, in the centre of the town, figures were in the mid-to late 30s. Of the four booths there, one is at 35 per cent; two at 33 per cent and one at just 24 per cent.

At St Colman's NS, which caters for a lot of east Mullingar; there were two boxes on 40 per cent and one at 22 per cent.

Earlier, at 6.45pm at Gaelscoil an Mhuillinn, which caters for a lot of the population of West Mullingar, the highest out of the five boxes there had a turnout at of just 33% and the lowest was at 14%, however the 33% turnout was for a box with just 300 votes. A point being made in a lot of the polling stations is that the turnouts are going to be inaccurate because many of the names on the registershave letters beside their names indicating they are ineligible to vote in a presidential election .

In rural areas, the turnout is proving somewhat higher.

At 8.30pm, the neighbouring areas of Collinstown and Fore were registering at 38 per cent; Castlepollard is a 41 per cent; and at Taughmon, one box is at 43.6 per cent and the other around 52 or 53 per cent.