A day ahead of the vote, polls continue to indicate that the smaller parties and independent candidates could play a crucial "kingmaker" role when it comes to forming a government.
Earlier this week, an in-depth voter poll carried out by The Irish Times and IPSOS MRBI showed that party support for Prime Minister Enda Kenny's center-right Fine Gael party stands at 28 percent, on a par with the level of support for independents and smaller fringe parties at the same level.
However, support for Fine Gael's coalition partner, Irish Labour, stands at only 6 percent, raising fears that the party might be close to collapse and the make-up of any future coalition would be very different.
The polls, conducted on a sample of 1,200 voters from across the country, showed that a possible contender for the election is Fianna Fáil, a populist, centrist party led by MicheálMartin. The party currently has a support level of 23 percent and Martin has proved popular in televised debates between party leaders.
Left-wing Republican party Sinn Féin is currently trailing with 15 percent of the vote, the lowest level recorded for the party in an Irish Times/IPSOS MORI polls in more than four years.
The popularity of the party's President Gerry Adams suffered following media interviews in which he seemed confused over the party's fiscal policies, according to various Irish news reports.
Asked which of the four main party leaders they would prefer to see as prime minister, or Taoiseach, 24 percent of voters polled preferred Enda Kenny with an equal amount preferring Fianna Fail's Micheál Martin. Only 12 percent preferred Gerry Adams and only 4 percent preferred Joan Burton, the leader of the beleaguered Labour.