Catherine Connolly, an independent leftwing candidate, has won the landslide election and has been confirmed as the next president of Ireland.
After getting 63 percent of the first preference votes, a spectacular achievement since it broke the political establishment, she promised to be a president after winning 63 percent of the first preference votes, an impressive feat that will make her the 10th head of state in the republic.
“I will be a voice of peace, I will be a voice that builds the policy of neutrality, a voice that will express the existential threat of climate change”, she said at Dublin Castle on 25th October night after she was proclaimed the winner of the Friday election.
The 68-year-old former barrister promised to speak on behalf of people who were speechless. She spoke Irish and English and said, “We should constructively question our public and democracy. We can all create a new republic that appreciates all people, appreciates and promotes diversity, and has faith in ourselves.”
An independent member of parliament who was a Galway interim, Connolly, won the imagination of many of the younger people, plus an alliance of the leftwing opposition parties.
Of 1,442,698 valid votes cast, she won 914,143. Heather Humphreys, a former cabinet minister and a candidate of the ruling Fine Gael party, secured 424,987 or 29% votes in a two-horse race. The candidate in Fianna Fáil, Jim Gavin, had left the campaign, but his name was still listed on the ballot and won 103,568, or 7%.
The victory of Connolly was tainted by the fact that there was a turnout of 46 per cent. – low Irish fashion – and 213,738 spoiled or invalid votes, the highest number in history, which was the result of disappointment at not having a vote. Spoiled votes in certain Dublin constituencies went as high as a fifth.
Presidency is more of a decorative position, but the triumph of Connolly was a bitter blow to the right-wing government.
Rarely has anger about a housing crisis and cost of living, backed by casualties of campaign errors by Fine Gael and ruling partner Fianna Fáil, relative political unity among left-wing parties, and mastery of social media, made Connolly become a figure of change.
The possibility of Connolly becoming the next president of the Republic of Ireland, replacing President Michael D Higgins and having a seven-year term in the seat of power, Austin an Uachtaráin, the presidential residence, is causing his supporters to be excited. She wants to cordon off Irish neutrality against what she terms Western militant nature and even accused the UK and US of facilitating genocide in Gaza.
The ex-clinical psychologist and barrister energized the youth by posting and podcasting about the subject, which trended on social media, even having videos of her playing keepy-uppy. Her endorsers included artists and musicians like Kneecap and the Mary Wallopers.
The critics portrayed Connolly as a radical who evaded embarrassing questions and could ruin the relationship of Ireland with Washington and the European partners.
Irish presidents have always been low-profile, symbolic figures; however, since 1990, Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese, and Higgins have made the office more of a frontline party.
During the campaign, Connolly said that she would not overstep the boundaries of the office, which was seen as an unspoken commitment to curtail controversial opinions, but analysts said that there would be friction with the government.
She was a peripheral political personage as she announced her bid in July, and small parties, such as the Social Democrats and the People Before Profit, were the only ones who supported her. Labour then gave her the nod, and Sinn Féin, which had resolved not to run its own candidate, threw its massive resources and electoral organisation behind Connolly.
Carlos Santos, whose celebrity status included Bob Geldof, Michael Flatley, and Conor McGregor, among others, had all been interested in running as president, but they all lost the political support needed to make the ballot.
The Gavin candidate of Fianna Fáil was a political newcomer who stepped down when his campaign collapsed due to a financial scandal.
Original Fine Gael candidate Mairead McGuinness withdrew (on health grounds); therefore, the party approached Humphreys. The border-county Presbyterian was considered to be wholesale and mainstream attractive, but not good at the debates.
In a telephone call, Higgins, who has served as the president for 14 years, congratulated Connolly. He said, “the entire office would support the president-elect during the preparations for her inauguration next month.”
