Live: Connolly could win presidency by largest ever margin

James Cox and Ellen O'Donoghue

Counting started at 9am in the presidential election.

• Boxes are being opened across the country, as the counting of votes in the presidential election gets underway.
• Independent Catherine Connolly, Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin (Fianna Fáil) are on the ballot.
• Tallies should give us an idea by mid-morning whether there is indeed a clear win for independent Catherine Connolly, but a first count result won't come until this evening.

1pm

First counts of ballots in the presidential election are now underway.

Catherine Connolly will be Ireland's next president after a commanding win.

The Fine Gael director of elections Martin Heydon has conceded defeat as counting continues across the country.

Some first counts could be announced as early as 2pm - but a final result likely won't be known until 5 or 6pm.

Catherine Connolly may come away with the largest percentage win in presidential history, if she can surpass Eamon de Valera's 56.3 per cent of the vote.

She is well above that in many constituencies, and as high as 64 per cent in some places.

The number of spoiled votes looks to be at least 10 times what it was at the last presidential election.

Two hundred thousand or more people may have spoiled their vote.

12.25pm

Counting staff in west Dublin have called the vote for left-wing Catherine Connolly a “landslide”, while also noting the sharp increase in the number of spoiled votes in the presidential election.

In Dublin Mid-West, final tallies indicated Ms Connolly secured 56 per cent of the votes cast, on a turnout of 42 per cent.

Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys was on 15 per cent, with 21 per cent of votes cast spoiled.

Jim Gavin, who pulled out of the race three weeks ago and is from the area, was on 7 per cent.

Local Sinn Fein TD Eoin Ó Broin said the scale of the vote for Ms Connolly was “very, very significant”.

“A huge Catherine Connolly vote here, an absolute collapse not just of the Fianna Fáil vote – and that was to be expected – but of the Fine Gael vote as well.

“Really remarkable in a constituency where Fine Gael used to have two TDs and currently have a sitting junior minister. An absolute collapse.

“And then of course there is a significant number of spoils, you can’t deny that. And what it tells us is there are people out there who are very angry, who are very unhappy.

“Our job in the time ahead is to try and convince more of those people that there is an alternative, there is a message of hope, and we hear the fact that they are not happy. So there is a job of work to do afterwards.”

12.15pm

Catherine Connolly is “absolutely delighted” with early tallies indicating she is the clear frontrunner to become Ireland’s next president.

Speaking to reporters in Galway, Ms Connolly said: “I am absolutely delighted with the result and I want to thank all my supporters.

“Actually, I want to thank everybody – even those who did not vote for me.

“I understand their concerns in relation to who will represent them best.” - Press Association

11.50am

There is no doubt that the story of the day is the presidential election, but along with that comes the story of the sheer volume of spoiled votes.

The early picture of tallies seems to back opinion polling, with Catherine Connolly holding an early lead in most constituencies across the country.

The sheer number of spoiled presidential votes could reach unprecedented levels, early tallies have indicated.

Tallies from the Catherine Connolly campaign indicated that they believe there have been around 30,000 spoiled votes so far, and the total figure could end up at around 10 per cent of those who voted, The Irish Times reported.

11.15am

Catherine Connolly is on course to be the next president of Ireland. Votes are still being sorted across the country, but tallies indicate it's one-way traffic.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said it looks as though this will be a landslide win for Catherine Connolly, while Fine Gael Minister Helen McEntee has all but conceded defeat for her colleague Heather Humphreys.

Even in Fine Gael heartlands like Dún Laoghaire, Ms Connolly leads. The only constituency in which Heather Humphreys leads is her home patch of Cavan Monaghan.

However, a large number of people have chosen to spoil their vote.

In some Dublin constituencies, there are more spoiled votes than there are votes for Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin combined.

There's no unifying theme behind the spoiled votes - with dissatisfaction being expressed with the choice on the ballot, immigration and the general state of politics in Ireland.

10.22am Boxes opened at 9am and votes are being sorted across the country ahead of counting.

The early picture seems to back up the opinion polling with Catherine Connolly holding an early lead in most constituencies across the country.

But from the boxes already open this morning the story is the sheer volume of spoiled votes across the country.

Those have a series of different motivations and slogans - quite a few people have written Maria Steen's name, Enoch Burke for President has also been recurrent vote.

Some contain anti-migrant messages.

In some early boxes, the number of spoiled votes is significantly higher than the vote for Heather Humphreys.

The volume of spoiled votes will likely delay the result this evening.

Other spoiled votes were less serious - including votes for Brad Pitt and Dustin the Turkey.

While three miraculous medals have been found in a box in Limerick, in an election day staple.

10am Early tallies suggest Catherine Connolly is set for a large victory with Heather Humphreys behind by a ratio of over two-to-one in some constituencies.

Dublin, Kildare, Galway, Meath, Wexford, and Clare all show strong leads for Ms Connolly so far.

9.40am Further reports of a high number of spoiled votes.

9.30am Initial reports from Dublin suggest a strong lead for Catherine Connolly along with a high number of spoiled votes.