He is en route to a landslide victory.
Ballot counting across the country is underway after people across Ireland voted on who would be president.
Following the exit polls last night, Michael D. Higgins is projected to remain in the Aras for another seven years – receiving more than 50 per cent of the votes in the results of both polls.
The counting began at 9am this morning – and at the time of writing, 38 out of 40 constituencies have published their first count results.
A number of his opponents have already conceded.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already sent his best wishes to Higgins over the election results, saying that he was “really happy that you will continue to be our President for the next 7 years.”
Congratulations @MichaelDHiggins. Really happy that you will continue to be our President for the next 7 years
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) October 27, 2018
The results of the Red C exit poll released last night [October 26] interviewed 3,474 people at random across 138 polling stations throughout the country.
The figures saw Michael D. Higgins projected to receive 58 per cent of the vote, followed by Peter Casey at 20.7 per cent.
The poll had a margin error of plus or minus 3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll – which had a sample of 4,365 random people – was conducted at 160 stations across the country. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 per cent.
The results showed Michael D. Higgins forecast to receive 56 per cent of the vote, with Peter Casey coming in second at 21 per cent.
The referendum to abolish blasphemy from the constitution also looks to be passing, with the RTE/Red C exit poll showing 71 per cent of respondents in favour of axing it.
