Catherine Connolly to be Ireland’s next president after landslide victory

Leftwing independent candidate Catherine Connolly has won Ireland’s presidential election by a landslide, and her rival, Heather Humphreys, conceded defeat on Saturday afternoon after early vote tallies showed an insurmountable gap between the candidates.

“Catherine will be a president for all of us, and she will be my president, and I really would like to wish her all the very, very best,” Humphreys said. Reports from tallymen—unofficial but usually reliable observers at count centres—gave Connolly 64% of the vote after two-thirds of ballots were counted. The tallies showed she beat Humphreys even in Fine Gael strongholds such as south Dublin.

Connolly, 68, captured the imagination of the young people and was backed by an alliance of left-wing opposition parties in Friday’s election.

The presidency in Ireland is a largely ceremonial office, but Connolly’s triumph is a humbling rebuke to the centre-right government.

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Humphreys, 62, a former cabinet minister who ran for the Fine Gael party, secured 29% votes, while Jim Gavin, a candidate for Fianna Fáil who withdrew late from the campaign and hence whose name remained on the ballot, got 7% votes.

The number of spoiled votes was around 13%, a record high that signifies widespread frustration with the limited choices. Turnout was estimated to be around 40% of the 3.6 million eligible voters.

‘Thank everybody, even those that didn’t vote for me’: Connolly

Connolly said she was delighted, speaking after the early tallies. “I want to thank everybody, even those that didn’t vote for me. I understand their concerns in relation to who will represent them best.”

Anger over a housing crisis and the cost of living, campaign blunders by Fine Gael and its ruling partner Fianna Fáil, rare unity among leftwing parties and deft use of social media combined to make Connolly a symbol of change.

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Connolly will succeed President Michael D Higgins and serve a seven-year term at Áras an Uachtaráin, the presidential residence. She speaks Irish, espouses equality, and wishes to ringfence Irish neutrality from what she calls western “militarism”. She has likened Germany’s arms spending to the Nazi era and accused the UK and US of enabling genocide in Gaza.

The former clinical psychologist and barrister enthused young people through podcasts and posts that went viral on social media.

Critics depicted Connolly as a radical who dodged awkward questions and could damage Ireland’s relations with Washington and with its European allies. However, Connolly said during the campaign that she would respect the limits of the office, which some interpreted as a tacit promise to rein in controversial views, but analysts predicted friction with the government.

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Irish presidents traditionally played quiet, symbolic roles, but since 1990 Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese and Higgins have turned the office into a more visible platform.