A huge poster for legalized abortion is seen on a building in downtown Dublin, Ireland, May 25, 2018. Nearly 70 percent of Irish voted to abolish Ireland's longtime abortion ban in a Friday referendum, according to an exit poll. (Xinhua/Zhang Qi)

DUBLIN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 66.4 percent of voters voted to scrap the present anti-abortion laws in Ireland in a Friday referendum, according to the final results announced by a returning officer here on Saturday evening.

Totally 33.6 percent of voters chose to retain the present abortion laws, or widely known as the Eighth Amendment among locals, that virtually ban abortions in the country, said the returning officer Barry Ryan.

Ryan declared the above results of the referendum in front of a large cheering crowd of people gathering at a central count center at Dublin Castle, a main government complex, in the Irish capital of Dublin.

According to Ryan, nearly 3.37 million voters were registered for the referendum and 64.1 percent of them turned out in Friday's voting with some 6,000 votes declared invalid.

The referendum received an overwhelming victory in almost all the 40 constituencies across the country except in Donegal, a constituency in the country's northwest, with 51.9 percent of voters voting against repealing the Eighth Amendment.

Dublin ranked in the first place in terms of Yes vote for ending the constitutional ban in the country with a rate of 75.5 percent in favor, followed by the eastern region of Leinster (66.6 percent), the southwest region of Munster (63.3 percent), and the midwest and northwest regions of Connacht-Ulster (57.5 percent), according to the official results of the referendum.