Ireland's three major parties are set for an extraordinary tie in the country's general election, exit polls have predicted.
Today's poll, carried out by Ipsos MRBIand published at 10pm, saw Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin win almost equal shares of the vote.
The results placed Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael party on 22.4 per cent, Sinn Féin on 22.3 per cent and Fianna Fáil on 22.2 per cent.
Sampling for the poll, commissioned jointly by The Irish Times, RTE, TG4 and UCD, had taken place all day at 250 locations, with more than 5,000 respondents across the country.
It has a margin of error of 1.3 per cent, the Irish Times reported.
The rest of the results showed the Green Party trailing behind with 7.9 per cent, Labour on 4.6 per cent, the Social Democrats on 3.4 per cent, the Solidarity-People Before Profit on 2.8 per cent and independents/others on 14.5 per cent.
It was the first time the country held a general election on a Saturday in more than a century.
Authorities feared that poor weather conditions caused by Storm Ciara would dampen voters' efforts to get to the ballot boxes.
There were conflicting reports by early Saturday evening, with many areas reporting a brisk voting pace through the day – but Mr Varadkar claimed the numbers going to the polls were actually low.
Brexit did not feature prominently in a campaign dominated by domestic issues like spiralling rental prices, record-breaking homeless numbers, controversy over the state pension age and a struggling health service.
No party is expected to reach the 80-seat threshold to enable it to govern on its own, and a coalition administration in some form is almost inevitable.
The final results are not expected until late on Sunday or Monday morning.
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