DUBLIN - Nearly 70 percent of Irish voted to abolish Ireland's longtime abortion ban in a Friday referendum, according to an exit poll.

A total of 69.4 percent of voters in the referendum voted "Yes" for legalized abortion while "No" voters accounted for 30.6 percent, according to an exit poll conducted by an independent local market research company named Behavior and Attitudes on behalf of the RTE, the largest news media group in Ireland.

According to the poll which contained 3,800 voters in total, 72.1 percent of women voted "Yes" while 65.9 percent of men voted for repealing a 1983 amendment, which stressed the equal importance of the right to life for both the mother and the unborn.

The data also indicated a distribution of opinion based on age and region.

Voters on the "Yes" side stood at 87.6 percent in the 18-24 age group, while a majority of voters above 65 voted "No".

The poll also showed that the more developed a region, the higher the "Yes" vote it has. Data showed that "Yes" vote in urban areas was 72.3 percent while that in rural areas stood at 63.3 percent.

Earlier on late Friday night, another exit poll conducted on behalf of The Irish Times found 68 percent of voters on the "Yes" side while 32 percent voted "No".

An estimated 3.3 million registered voters were expected to take part in Friday's 15-hour vote at 6,500 polling stations across the country.