Voters in the Republic of Ireland are heading to the polls to elect a new president of Ireland.

The winning candidate will become the country’s 10th president, replacing the current head of state Michael D Higgins.

There are two contenders to become the next president, but voters will have a choice of three candidates – Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin, whose withdrawal from the race came too late to have his name removed from the ballot paper.

Polls opened on Friday at 07:00 local time and will close at 22:00. According to An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland’s independent electoral commission, about 3.6m Irish citizens are entitled to vote.

Catherine Connolly is running as an independent candidate with the support of a broad base of left-leaning parties and politicians, including the main opposition party Sinn Féin.

The coalition government party, Fine Gael, is represented by a former government minister, Heather Humphreys, who comes from a Protestant community in the border county of Monaghan.

A third candidate, Jim Gavin, who was selected by the main coalition party, Fianna Fáil, withdrew from the campaign earlier in October after intense controversy over a 16-year-old rental dispute in which he owed €3,300 (£2,870) to a former tenant.

However, as his withdrawal came after the close of nominations, the law states his name must remain on the ballot paper.

It means people can still vote for Gavin and any votes cast for him will be counted as legitimate and, if necessary, transferred to other candidates after the first count.

The counting of votes will begin at 09:00 on Saturday, and the winning candidate is expected to be announced at Dublin Castle.

Michael D Higgins is due to complete the second of his two consecutive seven-year terms of office at midnight on 10 November and the new president is expected to be inaugurated the following day, 11 November.