Who won the Irish Presidential Election? Low turnout but 'overwhelming' result expected

Counting is underway in the Irish Presidential Election as the nation decides between Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys as Michael D Higgins' replacement in Áras an Uachtaráin.

While counting will take a considerable number of hours around the country, early tallying of boxes being opened are showing an "overwhelming" result is likely. 

Speaking on RTE radio from the RDS where counting is taking place for the Dublin constituencies, former Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys indicated that Catherine Connolly is "comfortably" ahead in most boxes.

He said we could be calling her President Connolly by lunchtime. He said it was clear the Galway TD would win, likely on the first count, despite "a fair number of votes for [Jim] Gavin" despite him pulling out of the race on October 5.

"I see Catherine Connolly home and comfortable in the first count, high proportion of spoilt votes...it will be one count," Kevin Humphreys said.

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Despite the tallies giving an accurate indication of the likely result, counting will continue until the afternoon. We are likely to know the official result before the day is out and it could be as early as Saturday afternoon if a result emerges on count one.

Those tallying boxes have been reporting a high number of spoilt votes in boxes, particularly in Dublin. Some opted to write the #spoilthevote hashtag on the ballot, while others added a box and cast an invalid vote for Maria Steen and others who failed to secure a nomination to appear legitimately on the ballot.

Other spoiled votes included anti-government and anti-immigration sentiments with one ballot labelled with the message, 'shame on FG/FF.'

While spoilt votes are invalid and won't be counted, some can be queried as to their legitimacy to count for one candidate or another. This process could delay counts in some parts of the country but given the predicted margin between Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, such queried votes are highly unlikely to materially affect the outcome.