Independent TD Catherine Connolly has been elected Ireland’s 10th president in a landslide victory, winning 63 per cent of the vote.
The Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys won less than half that figure, with 29 per cent of the first-preference vote.
Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin, who ended his campaign in early October but whose name remained on the ballot paper, took 7 per cent of the vote, the party’s worst-ever performance.
Turnout was higher than expected at 46 per cent, exceeding the 2018 presidential election, though this seems to have been driven in part by a campaign to encourage people to turn out and spoil their votes.
Spoiled votes came in at almost 13 per cent, multiples of the usual level, as a larger-than-typical number of voters expressed dissatisfaction at the limited choice of candidates on the ballot and the nature of the campaign.
Just 1 per cent of votes were spoiled in the 2018 presidential election.
President-elect Catherine Connolly ar
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