Ireland goes to the polls on 29 November. The parties of the governing coalition face off against the opposition Shin Fein party after a campaign marked by divisions over the housing crisis and the cost of living.
Polling stations across the country will open at 7:00 pm and close at 10:00 pm GMT. Voters elect new members to the 174-seat lower house of parliament, the Dáil, in Dublin, AFP reports.
Counting of votes will not begin until the morning of 30 November. Partial results are expected during the day.
However, the final result may not be clear for days, as under Ireland's proportional representation system the votes of dropped candidates are redistributed during several rounds of counting.
The final opinion poll put the three main parties - the centre-right Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as well as the left-nationalist Shin Fáin - each on around 20%.
Fine Gael, whose leader Simon Harris called a snap election earlier this month, had a solid lead early in the campaign.
In April, Harris replaced his predecessor, Leo Varadkar, aged just 37, and became Ireland's youngest Taoiseach (prime minister).
Now, at 38, he is credited with restoring Fine Gael, thanks in part to his social media skills that earned him the nickname "TikTok Taoiseach".
However, the party lost its advantage after a video of Harris behaving rudely and disparagingly with a carer went viral during the election campaign. | BGNES
