DUBLIN — For the second time in two years, a few million Irish voters have cast ballots in a referendum that will help determine the future of the European Union, which embraces nearly 500 million people.

Thousands of people from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions marched during a national day of demonstration on Wednesday in Dublin. The Irish will vote on the Lisbon Treaty on Friday.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland is seeking a "yes" vote in Friday’s referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

The choice on Friday was to accept or reject the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to smooth the European Union’s operations and create its first full-time president and foreign policy chief. The pact must be accepted by all 27 member states to come into force. Ireland, one of the last holdouts, voted no last year.

Opinion polls forecast that this time would be different, and exit polls on Friday night appeared to reinforce that. Official results are expected Saturday.

But pro-Lisbon campaigners took nothing for granted, continuing even after the polls opened to canvass in shopping centers and other public areas. Antitreaty protesters kept vigil, too, leafleting in downtown Dublin.

With once-booming Ireland mired in one of the deepest downturns of any industrial country since the 1930s, treaty proponents say it would be a mistake to upset the neighbors on whom Ireland depends for financial help.

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