Voters in the Republic of Ireland have overwhelmingly voted against amending the Irish Constitution in referendums.
Proposals to alter wording in the constitution to include families which are not based on marriage were defeated with 67.7% voting ‘no’.
A second proposed change on the wording around the role of women in the home was defeated by a higher margin with 73.9% of voters rejecting it.
It was the highest ever no vote percentage in an Irish referendum.
The first result announced on Saturday evening was in the family referendum.
The highest ‘no’ votes came from Donegal where 80% voted no on family and 84% voted no on care.
Only Dún Laoghaire, south-east of Dublin voted narrowly in favour of changing the definition of a family.
The family referendum was defeated in the constituencies of all major party leaders – Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin (Cork South Central), Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar (Dublin West), Green’s Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South) Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central), Social Democrats’ leader Holly Cairns (Cork South-West), Labour’s Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South) and Aontú leader Peadar Tobín (Meath West).
After a long wait, Waterford was the final constituency to declare its result for the care referendum.
In the care referendum, on the role of women in the home, 1,114,620 people voted no, compared with 393,053 yes voters, or 26.07% of the total.
There was a turnout of 44.36% nationally in the referendums, which were held on Friday
Earlier, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said “it was clear” that two referendums have been defeated.
Mr Varadkar said it was clear both amendments had been “defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout”.
He said the Irish government accepted the result and will “respect it fully.”
“As head of government and on behalf of the government, we accept responsibility for the result,” he said.
“It was our responsibility to convince the majority of people to vote ‘Yes’ and we clearly failed to do so.”
Meanwhile, tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin said he fully accepted the decision of the Irish people.
“On this occasion, the majority clearly were not persuaded as to the merits of the two proposals put forward,” he said.
According to Irish state broadcaster RTÉ turnout for the family referendum was 44.36%.
‘No big crowds or celebrations’ – Darran Marshall, BBC News NI – in Dublin
The courtyard at Dublin Castle has witnessed many historic moments.
Over recent years it was where crowds gathered to celebrate momentous changes to the country’s constitution – including referenda on same sex marriage and abortion reform.
There were no such scenes today. No big crowds. No celebrations. With the exception of a handful of Aontú supporters the courtyard was desolate.
Within minutes of the ballot boxes opening this morning it was clear the electorate had rejected both proposals to change the constitution.
The only question would be, what would be the margin of defeat for the government and the main opposition parties?
The Taoiseach was here for a short time and spoke to the media in a room inside Dublin Castle.
The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also spoke to waiting media but her comments were interrupted by a few hecklers.
Earlier on Saturday Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan who campaigned for ‘yes’ said the result would be respected.
This article was originally published by a www.bbc.com . Read the Original article here. .