Catherine Connolly to be next Irish President

By Iain McLean

Left-wing independent candidate, Catherine Conolly, has become the new Irish President.

The results were clear long before all votes had been counted.

Counting began on Saturday, October 25th at 9am after the balloting took place across Ireland the day before.

 Polling throughout the day showed a Conolly lead but official counting didn’t start until 9am on the 25th.

As the votes were counted, the first counties to declare showed a large gap between Connolly and her opponent, Fine Gaels Heather Humphrey.

Irish flag flying in Dublin in front of popular Temple Bar - Getty Images

 Humphrey officially conceded to Conolly just after 13:30 upon arriving to Cavan-Monaghan count centre.

Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Simon Harris, officially congratulated Conolly after Humphrey’s concession on his social media.

The leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns, also sent congratulations to Conolly, calling it a “seismic moment in our history”.

Conolly will take over as president after Michael D Higgins has fully served his two terms (14 years) in office. He was photographed when the polls opened casting his vote alongside his wife.

Though an issue became more apparent as the counting went on, spoiled ballots.

The official number of spoiled ballots was 213,728, the highest in Irish history.

This was orchestrated by a campaign called “Spoil the Vote” which was “founded in response to growing public concern about the lack of genuine choice in the forthcoming presidential election".

A driving force behind this campaign was Eddie Hobbs, an achieved businessman who currently runs a show on YouTube called “Counterpoint”.

He stated that the campaign was "an act of defiance and rebuke to this Government".

Irish parliament building seen with Irish flags flying above - Getty Images

The main frustration behind this campaign is the alleged lack of choice on the ballot.

 Most campaigners were vocal that Maria Steen, a right-wing politician who failed to get on the ticket for this year’s ballot should have been included in the ballot despite not receiving the 20 necessary signatures to get onto the ballot.

Former Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), Leo Varadkar, tells Heather Humphreys to "hold your head high, girl" in a social media post.

"You stepped into the breach, late in the day, when our candidate withdrew," he writes.

"You've carried your home constituency where people know you best. You've held the FG vote and some."

Overall, it was an eventful election with many twists and turns.