国际英语新闻:European Parliament election in Ireland ends smoothly

DUBLIN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Voting in the European Parliament election in Ireland ended here on Friday night with no reports of any serious disruptions.

Counting of the votes for the three constituencies in Ireland, namely Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West, will commence on Sunday morning at three centres set up in Dublin, the capital of the country, Cork, a city in the country's south, and Castlebar, a town in the west.

Announcement of the results of the count is embargoed until 10 p.m. on Sunday, according to the election rules.

Local media quoted early figures as saying that the turnout in the constituency of Dublin stood between 17 percent to 50 percent while that in Midlands-North-West ranged from a low level of 8-9 percent in Cavan, a town in the north, to 53-55 percent in Sligo in the northwest.

The turnout in the constituency of South ranged from a low level of 6-17.3 percent in Limerick to 42-56 percent in Wexford, a city in the southeast coast of the country.

Earlier reports said that a total of 59 candidates either backed by different political parties or contesting on their own would compete for the 13 seats allocated for Ireland in the 751-seat European Parliament.

The actual number of the contestants for the election is not known immediately.

Out of the 13 candidates who will win the election, 11 will take their seats in the European Parliament immediately while two winners from the constituencies of Dublin and South will take their seats only if and when Britain leaves the European Union.

Along with Friday's European Parliament election in Ireland, there were three other elections going on simultaneously in the country. One is the local council election during which candidates would compete for 949 seats in some-30-strong local councils across the country. The other is a referendum on whether the current Constitution in relation to divorce should be changed or not so that the minimum five-year waiting period for a divorce could be shortened. The last one is a plebiscite on directly elected mayors in three Irish cities, namely Limerick, Waterford and Cork.

The counting of the afore-said three elections won't kick off until tomorrow morning, said local media.

Latest news coming in said that a wave of support for Green Party has set the party on course to top the poll in the European Parliament election in Dublin, according to a local exit poll.

Founded in 1981, Green Party has only two seats in the lower house of the Irish parliament, one seat in the senate and no seats in the current European Parliament.