Election turnout slides to below 50%

Sorting of ballots in the local and European elections and the referendum on local government will begin at 9 a.m. today after yesterday's poll, in which less than half the electorate voted.

Counting of local election and referendum votes will get under way later in the day, with a referendum result expected by mid-evening. Although the European count will not start until tomorrow morning, party tallies should give an accurate picture of at least the first preference vote by lunchtime today.

The overall turnout yesterday appears to have been well down on the last county council elections in 1991, when almost 56 per cent voted - although only 44 per cent turned out in the 1994 Europeans.

But as usual, voting was much higher in rural areas than in Dublin: Drumshanbo in Co Leitrim was reported to have had an 80 per cent turnout, while at Basin Street, one of the polling stations in Dublin's south inner city, the figure was only 26 per cent.

Cork city and county was closer to the national average, with turnouts between 40 and 50 per cent in the north city, and up to 50 per cent on the south side. The north of the county had about 55 per cent, with the west nearer to 60.

Kilkenny city, where the figure was 45 per cent, witnessed a last minute surge, with queues forming at several polling stations in the run-up to 9 p.m. Party sources said there would normally be a "trickle" of evening-time voters at stations like the Model School on Castlecomer Road, where queues were observed at 8.30 p.m. The turnout in Waterford looked set to mirror the national average at just under 50 per cent.

In Limerick city, where voting was very slow early in the day but picked up to reach about 45 per cent, Fianna Fail junior minister Mr Willie O'Dea was predicting the corporation elections would see the biggest swing to his party of any area in the country. He said they would win five seats, replacing Labour as the largest group on the 17-member corporation.

The director of the General Council of County Councils, Mr Liam Kenny, said the 8 a.m. opening time of polling stations yesterday was too late for many people to vote on the way to work.

"Commuting patterns have changed a lot even in the past five years, and particularly in city areas, I think some consideration should be given to an earlier start."

Verification and separation of all ballots this morning will be followed by the start of counting of the local and referendum votes, with the Department of the Environment predicting a referendum result some time between 6 and 8 p.m.

Counting of the European election votes will start at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the four centres: the RDS, Dublin; Neptune Stadium, Cork (Munster); Gormanston College, Co Meath (Leinster); and the Great Northern Hotel, Bundoran, Co Donegal (Connacht/Ulster). Results cannot be officially declared until 9 p.m. at the earliest, when polling has finished in all the other member-states.