TURNOUT FOR the Meath East by-election is expected to be in the low 30s after voters went to the polls today looking to fill the former seat of the late Minister of State Shane McEntee.

Around 64,100 people were entitled to vote in 110 polling stations across the constituency today but it is expected that overall turnout will be somewhere in the low 30s having been slow for most of the day.

By 2pm this afternoon just 7.5 per cent had turned out to vote across the constituency but voting surged in the evening particularly in the commuter belt areas of the constituency as people returned home from work.

A total of 11 candidates were on today’s ballot paper including Fine Gael’s candidate Helen McEntee, Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne, Labour’s Eoin Holmes and Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke.

Other candidates who ran included the Green Party’s Seán Ó Buachalla, Direct Democracy Ireland’s Ben Gilroy and Seamus McDonagh of the Workers’ Party.

In addition there were four non-party candidates including Charlie Keddy, Jim Tallon, Mick Martin and Gerard O’Brien.

Counting gets under way tomorrow morning at 9am.