Tánaiste Simon Harris has said it is “regrettable” that there were not more than two candidates in the 2025 Presidential election.
The race was a two-horse race between Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, Leftwing Independent Catherine Connolly, and Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin, who dropped out of the campaign prior to election day but remained on the ballot as a technicality.
The election, which saw an unprecedented 12.9% spoilt ballots (213,738 spoilt votes in total), saw a significant protest element, with an active “spoil the vote” campaign circulating on social media in the days and weeks preceding the election to object to the narrow choices on offer.
Speaking to reporters at Dublin Castle after conceding defeat to the victorious Catherine Connolly, Harris said that the number of spoiled votes was a protest message to the whole political system.
“I’m not sure those people who spoiled their ballot just sent a message to the government,” he said.
“They certainly did that, but I think they sent their message to all political parties because of course they could have voted for the opposition and they chose not to do that as well.
“…My sense from reading some of their comments was that they wanted to send a message to the political system, to political parties, that they didn’t feel represented on the ballot.”
He said it was “regrettable” that the choices were so narrow.
“I do think it is regrettable that there were only two active candidates on the ballot,” he said.
“That’s not how I saw the election going genuinely. I remember talking to lots of people about this. I’m sure I made public comments about this.
“If you would have asked me during the summer, I thought there would have been a Sinn Féin candidate, Catherine Connolly, a Fianna Fáil candidate, a Fine Gael candidate, and probably one other candidate, because the numbers were there to either get through the councils regardless of Fianna Fáil’s position or to get through the Oireachtas. So I think there’s a bit of reflection on that.”
He also noted the “effort” people went to in order to spoil their ballots.
“What I’m more interested in is the fact that people went to a lot of effort yesterday to go out and spoil their vote,” he said.
“I don’t say that as a smart comment. I mean that seriously. People actually decided to get in their car, get on their bicycle, walk to their polling station. They didn’t just sit at home. The people who spoiled their vote. We need to reflect on that too.”
Notably, Fine Gael ordered its councillors to not nominate any other candidates to the Áras – a move which Harris defended – while Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told his party’s Oireachtas members that the consequences for nominating any outside candidates would be “severe”.