Ireland’s voters are electing a new president, with polls indicating a win for left-wing independent Catherine Connolly, whose campaign was rocked by a last-minute deepfake video purporting to show her retreating from the race.

Friday’s poll, which closes at 10pm (21:00 GMT), with results expected by Saturday evening, sees Connolly competing with Heather Humphreys, of the centre-right Fine Gael party, for the largely ceremonial role, which increased in profile during the tenure of incumbent Michael D Higgins.

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Connolly’s campaign, backed by left-wing parties including Sinn Fein, has been especially popular among young people, who approve of her declaration that reunification with Northern Ireland is a “foregone conclusion”, her strong pro-Palestine stance, her commitment to social justice, and criticism of the European Union’s growing “militarisation”.

A third candidate, Fianna Fail’s Jim Gavin, remains on the ballot papers despite quitting the election earlier this month over a private rent payment scandal, with critics bemoaning a lack of choice in the two-horse race.

Connolly, 68, a barrister and member of parliament since 2016, emerged as a frontrunner after Gavin pulled out. She remains in the lead despite the emergence of the deepfake video on Tuesday, which showed an AI-generated version of the candidate announcing her withdrawal on a fake RTE news broadcast.

As The Irish Times newspaper noted in a recent report, Connolly has also attracted the youth vote through her embrace of the Irish language at a time of cultural resurgence brought by films like The Quiet Girl (An Cailin Ciuin) and bands such as Northern Ireland’s Kneecap, who sing in Irish and have taken to X to exhort their fans in the south to back the candidate.

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Fine Gael’s Humphreys, 64, has been in government for more than a decade, formerly serving in several Cabinet positions where she oversaw arts and heritage, business and rural development. She has stressed that she is a pro-business, pro-EU candidate.

Raised a Presbyterian in the mostly Catholic country, Humphreys has said she would strive for unity and “build bridges” with communities in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and has a large Protestant population.

Her supporters argue that her personal links with Protestants in the north make a united Ireland more likely.

While Humphreys underlined her years of experience in government, Connolly criticised her as a representation of “more of the same,” saying she is aligned with the outlook of recent governments.

The role of president does not have the power to shape laws or policies, but Higgins stretched the conventions of the office on a number of fronts, moving beyond the realm of formal government policy.

Higgins said that accusations of anti-Semitism against those who criticise the policies of Israel in the Gaza war amounted to “slander against Ireland”, and suggested that Israel and the countries that supply it with weapons should be excluded from the United Nations.

Ireland and Spain have been the European Union’s strongest pro-Palestine voices, while Germany and Hungary have staunchly kept themselves with Israel during its genocidal war in Gaza.