Official results on Saturday showed that Catherine Connolly has won Ireland’s presidential election by a landslide.
Connolly, an independent candidate supported by the left-wing opposition, won over 64.7% of the vote and defeated Heather Humphreys of the centrist Fine Gael party, who won 28.2% of the vote.
Jim Gavin, of the Fianna Fáil party, came third with just over 7%, although he had pulled out of the race earlier this month amid controversy over the rent payment scandal, leaving Connolly and Humphreys as the only viable candidates.
Gavin and Humphreys’ parties govern in a coalition government with the Green Party.
Connolly replaces Michael D Higgins, who served two full terms after serving in a largely ceremonial role since 2011.
Who is the new President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly?
Connolly, the 68-year-old MLA from Galway, built her campaign around messages of “peace,” “unity,” and “neutrality.”
A fluent Irish speaker, she comes from the far-left of Ireland’s political spectrum, and was endorsed by Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and other left-leaning parties.
Connolly has been a staunch critic of the United States and the European Union, even though Ireland is strongly supportive of the EU.
He has expressed his opposition to increased military spending in the European Union since the start of the war in Ukraine. Connolly also compares defense spending in Germany with that of the 1930s.
Connolly has criticized the US, Britain and France for their role in the war in Gaza.
Some of his views on these issues may put him at odds with Ireland’s centre-right government.
Voters expressed anger towards all parties in Ireland
The election saw a low turnout of 46.3%, with one in eight voters submitting spoiled ballots. Irish Times Newspaper.
Right-wing figures had called on voters to spoil their ballots in protest of the lack of conservative candidates in the race, as well as to demonstrate their frustration over issues such as immigration and crime.
Ireland, which is struggling with a severe housing crisis and rising homelessness, has seen sometimes violent protests against the rising numbers of asylum seekers.
Eoin O’Malley, a political science professor at Dublin City University, told the AFP news agency that the election had effectively turned into a “referendum on the centre-right government”.
He explained that the large number of spoiled ballots “reflects the deep anger and dissatisfaction across parties that refuse to discuss issues like immigration.”
Who else considered running?
Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor announced in September that he was withdrawing his bid for the presidency.
McGregor, a leading voice of the country’s anti-immigration movement, visited the White House in March as a guest of US President Donald Trump for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
He was convicted in a civil rape case last November and is also being sued in US federal civil court by a woman who accuses him of sexual assault in Miami.
Other high-profile celebrities who had expressed interest in the position, including musician Bob Geldof and “Riverdance” artist Michael Flatley, also dropped out of the running.
Edited by: Zack Crellin