Ireland begins voting in a double referendum Friday on proposals to modernise constitutional references to the make-up of a family and women's role in the home.
All the major political parties support a "Yes-Yes" vote, and until recently polls predicted a smooth passage for both on International Women's Day.
Polls open at 0700 GMT and close at 2200 GMT, with results in both votes expected by late Saturday. But surveys in the run-up to the ballots have logged rising unease about the vagueness of the two questions -- and the outcome of the votes.
This week Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who heads the centre-right-green governing coalition that proposed the questions, admitted that the results were "in the balance".
The two proposals, called the family amendment and the care amendment, would make changes to the text of Article 41 in EU member Ireland's constitution that was written in 1937.
The first asks citizens to expand the definition of family from those founded on marriage to also include "durable relationships" such as cohabiting couples and their children.
The second proposes replacing old-fashioned language around the role of "women in the home" with a clause recognising care provided by family members to one another.
The votes are the latest to tackle outdated legislation in Ireland where the Catholic Church was once all-powerful.
Voters in the country of 5.3 million opted to end constitutional limits on same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.
