11am update:
Donegal:
The trend in Donegal has been towards a NO vote so far with the NO side leading.
Barry Whyte has the latest:
But Donegal TDs Pearse Doherty and Thomas Pringle feel the Yes side will still win out by a margin in the end.
But the south of the county which is of course now in the Sligo Leitrim constituency have all recorded Yes. There are only 14 boxes in south Donegal in the Sligo Leitrim constituency. 11 of these have been tallied and Analyst John Comiskey says all of them have voted yes:
Sligo Leitrim 11am:
Repeal Vote is holding according to the tallies in Sligo Leitrim.
Harry Keaney has the latest from the count centre at the Clayton in Sligo:
10am update:
Sligo Leitrim:
Initial indications are that the landslide vote in favour of the ‘Yes’ campaign will be reflected in the Sligo/Leitrim constituency:
Already, exit polls indicate that people in Sligo/Leitrim voted by more than 60% in favour of repeal of the 8th Amendment.
And that’s in what was expected to be one of the most conservative constituencies in the country.
Ballot boxes from Sligo Town are the first to be opened here in the count count centre at The Clayton Hotel this morning.
And as Yes campaigner and Independent Councillor Declan Bree tells Ocean FM News, the overwhelming national trend seems as if it’s going to repeated here.
However, there has at least been one box where the over result was in favoujr of the No side — that was from Merville in Sligo Town.
Also, another box from the Loftus Hall in Ballymote, the votes cast between Yes and No were virtually neck and neck
Meanwhile, observers say turnout in Sligo/Leitrim was comparable to the last general election in 2016 when it was over 60%.
However, an actual turnout figure will not be known until the end of the count.
But when it comes to the vote result itself here, very early indications are that it will be clear cut in favour of the yes side.
Yes and No campaigners at the Donegal Count in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny
Donegal Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty had campaigned for a YES vote.
He says there’s no doubt that we have seen a major shift in people’s attitude to issues like abortion.
He says it’s force Irish people to have very difficult yet informative conversations.
He says it appears to be a resounding yes even in more rural counties like Donegal.
He’s been speaking to Barry Whyte at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny where the Donegal count is underway:
9am update:
Exit polls suggest the 8th amendment will be repealed when votes in the abortion referendum are counted today.
Ballot boxes are being opened across the country this morning.
In the North West, the Sligo Leitrim Count is taking place in the Clayton Hotel in Sligo while the Donegl county is taking place in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny.
We’ll have coverage here on Ocean FM as the boxes are opened.
With the first of our reports this morning, Harry Keaney reports from the Clayton in Sligo:
Meanwhile, Barry Whyte has the latest from the count which is just about to get underway in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny:
