Opkomst referendum Verdrag van Lissabon is tegen de middag gemiddeld in Dublin(en)
EUOBSERVER / DUBLIN - Dublin, home to roughly half Ireland's 3 million voters, is seeing average turn-out for a referendum, according to unofficial reports.
Across the capital, voting districts were reporting turnout ranging from nine percent to 18 percent of the total electorate as of midday, averaging 12.6 percent, according to spokespeople for the Dublin City Returning Officer.
The highest turn-out has so far been in Northside, the northern, more working class areas of the city. Working class voters are expected to break more strongly for the No side.
Nonetheless, the turnout split across the city may yet change substantially as people from middle class with lower levels of unemployment districts return home from work.
"Turnout tends to shoot up a little bit more in the early evening after work, as people vote on their way home," said John Wheelan of the Environment Department, the government department in charge of the referendum.
Polls are open quite late today. Having opened at 7 am, they do not close until 10 pm – in an effort to boost turn-out.
If Dublin leans towards the No on a high turn-out, campaigners on both sides say this would signal a win for the anti-treaty forces, as rural Ireland is expected to break marginally for the No as well. If Dublin goes Yes, all remains in play, as the urban vote could be balanced by farmers.
At the same time, the Irish Farmers' Association last week called on its members to support the Yes side, although having made a commitment so late in the game, farmers may yet go for the No.
At the Youthreach Centre polling station on Pleasants Street in south central Dublin, a mixed working class and middle class area, turnout was 11 percent.
Ben Bishop, the station's chief presiding officer, said such a turnout for a referendum was slightly higher than normal for the city centre. "It's normally two to three percent by this point in the day."
Up the road at the Synge Street polling station, in a middle class neighbourhood, turnout was nine percent as of midday, according to the poll's officer.
"It's been a steady trickle all morning – about what you'd expect," said presiding officer Vincent Tierney. "For a referendum, we'd expect by the end of the day about 30 percent. It's much higher for a general election."
Jackie Rhodes, manning the tables at the same polling station and a veteran election worker, said: "It's pretty average for a referendum, regardless of how contentious it is."
"It's too close to call. There've been an awful lot of people changing their minds just in the last few days – both ways."
Meanwhile, campaigners from the continent were out in force again today. The Young European Federalists setting up camp in St Stephen's Green, and a van-load of ten members of Attac, the alter-globalisation group that led the successful No campaign in France in 2005 laid out their stalls and literature outside the General Post Office, the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Uprising that presaged the country's independence from Britain.
The smartly dressed Young Federalists were broadly optimistic and reported "excellent" support from Dubliners, while the Attac activists also reported a "fantastic" attitude from voters.
One passer-by, Emma, a grandmother from Hayes, said: "I don't trust that lot in the parliament. They'd sell you a goat and tell you it's a race horse!"
Papers focus on turn-out
The Irish media for their part have focussed on the importance of turn-out.
The Irish Times front page lead story described how both sides were encouraging voters to make their mark, next to a large photograph of a sword swallower street performer, who had yesterday won the Guinness World Record for the highest number of simultaneous swords swallowed – 27, each bearing a different EU member state's flag.
The Irish Independent told readers that Ireland "needs to vote Yes" and also featured the street performer, headlined referendum "On a knife-edge".
The Irish Examiner also lead with government hopes for a high turn-out, while the Irish editions of the British tabloids – the right-wing and Euro-sceptic Irish Daily Mail, the Star and the Irish Sun – but not the Mirror - called on voters to choose No. The centre-left Mirror told readers they "must vote Yes".
The Sun's front-page, true to stereotype, bore a half-naked young woman with two X-marked voting papers covering her breasts alongside a frowning European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and a headline screaming: "No Way Jose".