An Irish referendum on a proposal to abolish the country's senate has had a low turnout. Source: AAP
VOTER turnout has been low in an Irish referendum on whether to abolish the country's upper house of parliament.
As polling stations closed at 10pm on Friday - with counting due to start on Saturday morning - the percentage of those casting their ballots was estimated to be less than 40 per cent.
An electorate of 3.1 million were eligible to have their say.
Latest opinion polls suggested a majority of voters would back Prime Minister Enda Kenny's call to get rid of the Seanad, or senate, in a historic move that would hand power exclusively to the lower house.
A poll in the Irish Times on Monday put the Yes vote - in favour of abolition - at 62 per cent, with 38 per cent backing the retention of the upper house, after excluding those who were undecided.
But more than a fifth of the electorate were undecided at the start of the week, while another 8 per cent said they did not intend to go to the ballot box.
Results in the referendum are expected by around mid-afternoon on Saturday.
The Taoiseach says abolition would create a leaner, more effective and more accountable system.
Opponents, led by the largest opposition party Fianna Fail, say the Seanad is necessary to serve as a government watchdog and to hold the ruling cabinet ministers to account.
The Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, is currently made up of the lower house, the Dail, from which government operates, and the upper house, the Seanad.
The senate has 60 members, with most elected from vocational panels by local councillors and by university graduates.
Eleven are appointed by the prime minister, generally ensuring a government majority.
It is not the first time the Irish have toyed with abolishing their upper house.
Eamon de Valera gave it the chop in 1936 when he was prime minister, before bringing it back a year later.
Historically, many senators tend to be politicians who failed to gain election in a general election or those hoping to win a seat in the lower house at a future election.
The upper house is the less powerful house of parliament, often reduced to rubber-stamping legislation from the lower house.
Its ability to delay bills passed by the lower house for 90 days is its most powerful function, but that has only occurred twice in 75 years.
Comparable upper houses have been abolished in New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden.
Irish voters are also being asked whether the state should set up a Court of Appeal.
Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein have all backed the court proposal, which could result in more basic appeals from the High Court going to the Court of Appeal instead of the Supreme Court.
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