Live minute-by-minute coverage of Ireland's presidential election results

The IrishCentral readers have spoken and voted Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness for President of Ireland. Over the last week 625 people have voted with 39 percent in favor of McGuinness as the new representative of Ireland.

Last week we asked our readers “Which Irish presidential candidate would you vote for?”

Following McGuinness they gave Michael D Higgins, the Labour Party candidate, 27 percent of the vote and Sean Gallagher 20 percent. Independent candidate David Norris won eight percent of the vote with IrishCentral readers while Dana Rosemary Scallon out took three percent.

These results are pretty similar to those predicted by Paddy Power bookies in Ireland. They’re putting Michael D Higgins at 1-6, with Gallagher at 7/2 however they have McGuinness far behind in third place at 22-1.

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Results from a poll taken by Ballotbox.ie were entirely different again. Ballotbox.ie calculated their results from 2,500 Irish emigrants around the world. An overwhelming 40 percent voted for Higgins. Senator David Norris received 24 percent of the vote while Martin McGuiness came in third with 18 percent.

Sadly early indications show that in Ireland, although over three million people are eligible to vote, there has been a poor turnout at the polls. Despite the fact that after this week’s flooding in Ireland there has been seasonally good weather the numbers that turned out are low.

UTV suggested that this could benefit McGuinness’ stance as the Sinn Fein party “has a history of pro-active voters.”

Counting of the ballots, which is done manually in Ireland, began at 9am in the 43 constituencies. First counts will be complete by early evening on Friday.

Live minute-by-minute coverage of Ireland's presidential election results