Mark Little
Prime Time

It contains some indication of which segments of the population the various parties and candidates draw their strength from.

Sinn Féin candidates polled strongest among the unemployed. The candidate in Dublin, Mary Lou McDonald, got 14.7% of the first preference vote, according to our exit poll, but she got 32.4% of the long-term unemployed voters.

Sinn Féin also did very well among single men, particularly in Europe South where
Toiréasa Ferris got 13.7% of vote, according to our poll, but 22% of the votes of single men. Go figure!

Mark Little
Prime Time

I’ve been going through some of the wreckage of the election and I thought I might share some rough observations.

To begin …

One of the striking things about this election is the divide between urban and rural voters. This may always have been the case, but there is evidence from this election that the divide is getting more pronounced and more consequential for the next few years in our political life.

Mark Little
Prime Time

Looking through the exit poll, I am struck by a lack of any dramatic shift in the political attitudes of young people, at least in the European elections.

In the Euros, the poll finds the Fianna Fáil vote among 18 to 24 year olds is exactly the same as the overall level (in the local elections, it’s actually 1% higher!)

The ballot boxes are being sorted and counted and the first results are due in the early afternoon.

We’ll have full results on RTÉ.ie with lots of nice graphs, tables and charts once they start rolling in.

Keep up with the latest news on the exit polls, tallies and results through the RTÉ Elections 2009 website.

As you may expect we're quite busy at present preparing for the weekend. You can be assured RTÉ will bring you all the coverage you need, it's possible to check out just how much the elections will feature in our broadcasting in the coming days right here.

We've also put together a very quick photo gallery of the Election 2009 studio being prepared, see that by clicking here. Over the weekend on RTÉ.ie we will have a continuously updated tracker, reports from journalists in count centres across the country and photographs from the main count centre, the RDS. Not mention a few blog reports to keep you satisfied.

By Mark Little

I kicked off my bank holiday weekend with a trip to Carrick-on-Shannon where I joined Fianna Fail’s Paschal Mooney on the campaign trail. This was home turf for the former radio star and there was a curious lack of dissident voices on the street. But despite the absence of debate, I got a fascinating insight into the psyche of Fianna Fail in the face of a political headwind.

The first thing that strikes you is Paschal’s memory for names and faces - he greets everyone he meets as if they were long lost relative. He comes across a bride and groom at the Bush hotel, arriving in a Rolls Royce. He knows the woman and plants a kiss on her lips before telling her she looks beautiful. He relates her life story as we walk away.