Ireland prime minister urges yes vote in gay marriage referendum

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/20/ireland-prime-minister-urges-country-yes-gay-marriage

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Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, has made a final plea for a yes vote in the referendum to legalise gay marriage.

The taoiseach told the Irish electorate on Wednesday night: “There is nothing to fear for voting for love and equality.”

Kenny made his plea on live television ahead of a broadcasting embargo imposed on all sides of same-sex marriage debate.

The republic is the only country in the world where the electorate will decide whether to make gay marriage legal. The country goes to the polls on Friday and the votes will be counted from Saturday morning.

Under the Irish electoral rules, there is a ban on statements from all sides of the debate on the country’s airwaves 24 hours before polling stations open.

Earlier, at his Fine Gael party’s last press conference of the campaign, Kenny said he had “no intention of becoming a gay icon” over his strong support for a Yes vote.

He also rejected suggestions from those opposed to gay marriage that religious schools would be forced to teach about the validity of same-sex marriages.

“We have absolute religious freedom here. The churches, irrespective of what church they are, have the absolute right to continue their teaching of their doctrine, their principles and their beliefs. Civil law is a separate matter and there may be questions asked in any school about the civil law,” Kenny said.

On claims by No campaigners that children could be forcibly adopted by gay married couples, Kenny said the interests of the child would not be changed in any way if there was a Yes vote.

Meanwhile, the pro-gay marriage campaign groups are claiming that a late surge in voter registration will boost the Yes cause. It has emerged that over the past weeks of the campaign more than 68,000 new voters have been added to the electoral register.