Referendum: end of the vote in Ireland, first results awaited towards 23h00
Saturday October 19, 2002 - 21h03 GMT
DUBLIN, Oct. 19 (AFP) - the polling stations closed Saturday with 21h00 local (20h00 GMT) in Ireland, where nearly three million voters had to decide for the second time on the treaty of Nice, whose adhesion depends on ten new countries to the European Union (UE).
The poll had begun twelve hours earlier, with 08h00 GMT, in the 42 districts which account this country.
The first results, in seven districts where the voters voted on a computer, are waited a few hours after the poll closure. They could be known about midnight (23h00 GMT), according to Irish media's, and should give a first general tendency of the vote of the Irishmen.
These seven districts, including six in Dublin, represent approximately a sixth of the 2,9 million Irish voters.
The final results will not be known before Sunday at the end of the afternoon, the manual examination in the 35 other electoral zones starting only at the beginning of morning.
According to the estimates of Irish television RTE, rate's of participation should be more significant this year than in June 2001, when the Irishmen had rejected the treaty of Nice by 54% of the voices. The participation had not exceeded 35%.
The last hours of the poll of Saturday were marked by an surge of voters in the polling stations of the large cities, in particular per hour of the mass of the evening, according to RTE.
The participation could thus reach 45% in Dublin, and between 30 and 50% in the remainder of the country, according to Irish national television.
The analysts estimate that a national rate of participation from at least 45% would profit above all with the camp from "yes", which had not filled the tank with the voices last year according to them.
The government of the Prime Minister Bertie Ahern had organized this referendum for the first time one Saturday, in the hope to fight against the abstention. The elections generally take place in the current of the week in Ireland, which prevents a number of students in particular from returning on their premises to vote.
The last surveys predicted all a victory of "yes" but close to an Irishman on five was always undecided at a few days of the poll, and one on ten did not intend to vote whole.
A new rejection is likely to plunge the UE in an institutional chaos which could delay the adhesion of the ten applicant countries, envisaged in 2004, several months even several years.
Sounds like it. Let the recounts begin!
Amazing. "They" certainly do not take no for an answer.
Well now they're in I won't hold my breath waiting for a vote in 2003 to see if they want to stay in the EU.
