DUBLIN: The current running tally on referendum results from Ireland shows more than 1.3 million votes in favor of repealing the country’s constitutional ban on abortions and roughly 650,000 opposed.
Nearly all of the voting regions counted so far backed repeal of the 1983 amendment and making parliament responsible for enacting abortion laws.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar plans to speak to supporters of the winning “Yes” campaign within 30 minutes of the final vote count.
All of Ireland’s 40 voting regions tallied so far voted in favor of doing away with the amendment, which required authorities to defend the lives of a mother and a fetus equally. Since 2014, abortion has been legal only in rare cases when a woman’s life is in danger.
The first official results for Ireland’s landmark abortion referendum have begun to come in, indicating a landslide win for abortion rights campaigners is likely in diverse constituencies across the country.
The first to declare was Galway East, a traditionally conservative constituency in the west that nonetheless returned a large majority for repealing the abortion ban by a 60.2 percent to 39.8 percent vote.
Results from urban centers were even more decisive. Dublin Central posted 76.5 percent for repeal, while two constituencies in the southern capital of Cork City polled 64 percent and almost 69 percent.
Officials say a final national result for Friday’s referendum may not be declared until early Saturday evening. From morning, however, it has seemed clear that overnight predictions of a massive vote for constitutional change were accurate.
Ireland’s unique grassroots system called “The Tally” has seen volunteers monitor the contents of ballot boxes as they were being opened at counting centers throughout the country. Donegal, in the northwest of the country, is the only county in Ireland where Tally men and women think the “no” vote might narrowly prevail.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has praised the apparent victory in the abortion referendum as “the culmination of a quiet revolution” that has been unfolding in the past 10 to 20 years.
“The people have spoken,” said Varadkar, who campaigned for repealing Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortions. “The people have said that we want a modern constitution for a modern country, that we trust women and we respect them to make the right decision and the right choices about their health care.”
The prime minister, a medical doctor who came to power last year, spoke to RTE News in advance of the announcement of the referendum’s official results, expected later Saturday.
He said there appears to be “a greater than 2-to-1 majority in favor of amending our constitution.” He said that majority reigned among both men and women, almost all age groups and social classes, and perhaps every constituency in the country.
