Citizens Assembly vote to recommend a referendum on the Eighth Amendment

The Citizens Assembly have voted by an overwhelming majority to recommend a referendum on the Eighth Amendment.
However, there has been a huge disruption to proceedings after the village where the Assembly is being held experienced a power-outage.
The first results of the Citizens Assembly came in just after midday today.
Over 87% of members have voted to say that Article 40.3.3, or the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution as it’s more commonly known, should not be retained in full.
Chair of the Citizens Assembly, Justice Mary Laffoy explained the result of the ballot, once they had been released.
Next, members will vote on what’s a key issue in the abortion debate.
They must now decide if the Eighth Amendment should be repealed or replaced.
As explained earlier this afternoon by the Secretary of the Assembly.
There was a disruption to today’s events, when shortly after the results of ballot 1 were read out, there was a power cut in Malahide Village, which left the room in darkness and unable to proceed with events.
Power has since been restored, with voting in the second ballot expected to take place soon.
The results of those are expected by 2:45 this evening, but that could now be later, due to that electrical problem.