{"id":239928,"date":"2025-10-25T20:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/239928\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:33:11","slug":"connolly-wins-irelands-presidential-election-in-landslide-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/239928\/","title":{"rendered":"Connolly wins Ireland\u2019s presidential election in landslide | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Catherine Connolly, a pro-Palestine, left-wing candidate, secures 63 percent of the vote to defeat centre-right rival.<\/p>\n<p>Left-wing independent candidate Catherine Connolly has won <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/24\/ireland-voting-for-new-president-in-hotly-contested-election\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland\u2019s presidential election<\/a>, securing 63 percent of the vote to defeat her centre-right rival.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly, 68, was officially declared the winner of Friday\u2019s vote after all 43 constituencies finished counting ballots on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will be a president who listens, who reflects and who speaks when it\u2019s necessary,\u201d Connelly said in a speech at Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTogether we can shape a new republic that values everybody,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Her competitor, Heather Humphreys, 64, of the Fine Gael party, conceded defeat hours before the official result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCatherine will be a president for all of us, and she will be my president, and I really would like to wish her all the very, very best,\u201d Humphreys, who won 29.5 percent of the vote, had said earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4059041\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/afp_68fcf02dbf43-1761407021.jpg\" alt=\"Counting of ballots takes place in the Irish Presidential election at the RDS count centre in Dublin City centre in Ireland on October 25, 2025.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>Vote counting at the RDS count centre in Dublin, Ireland, on October 25, 2025 [AFP]<\/p>\n<p>Polls had suggested consistent and strong voter support for Connolly, a former barrister and independent lawmaker since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly has been outspoken in criticising Israel over its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/liveblog\/2025\/10\/25\/live-un-says-1-5m-in-gaza-need-aid-israel-blocks-borders-despite-ceasefir\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">war in Gaza<\/a> and had garnered the backing of a range of left-leaning parties, including Sinn Fein, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Her campaign was especially popular among young people, who approved of her strong pro-Palestine stance and her commitment to social justice, among other issues.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Prime Minister and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris also wished Connolly \u201cevery success\u201d, adding, \u201cShe will be President for all this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer success will be Ireland\u2019s success,\u201d he posted on X before the official results were announced.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly and Humphreys were the only contenders after Jim Gavin, the candidate for Prime Minister Micheal Martin\u2019s Fianna Fail party, quit the race three weeks before the election over a long-ago financial dispute. Martin had backed Gavin in the race.<\/p>\n<p>While Irish presidents represent the country on the world stage, host visiting heads of state and play an important constitutional role, they do not have the power to shape laws or policies.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly will succeed Michael D Higgins, who has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms.<\/p>\n<p>She will be Ireland\u2019s 10th president and the third woman to hold the post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly, a pro-Palestine, left-wing candidate, secures 63 percent of the vote to defeat centre-right rival. Left-wing independent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3411,3456,43,23285,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-239928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}