Irish presidential election, 2011

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27 October 2011

Turnout

56.1%


Nominee	Michael D. Higgins	Seán Gallagher	Martin McGuinness
Party	Labour Party	Independent	Sinn Féin
1st preference	701,101 (39.6%)	504,964 (28.5%)	243,030 (13.7%)
2nd count	730,480 (41.6%)	539,401 (30.1%)	252,611 (14.4%)
3rd count	793,128 (45.5%)	548,373 (31.5%)	265,196 (15.2%)
Final count	1,007,104 (56.8%)	628,114 (35.5%)	Eliminated


Nominee	Gay Mitchell	David Norris	Dana Rosemary Scallon
Party	Fine Gael	Independent	Independent
1st preference	113,321 (6.4%)	109,469 (6.2%)	51,220 (2.9%)
2nd count	127,357 (7.3%)	116,526 (6.6%)	Eliminated
3rd count	136,309 (7.8%)	Eliminated
Final count	Eliminated


Nominee	Mary Davis
Party	Independent
1st preference	48,657 (2.7%)
2nd count	Eliminated

President before election

Mary McAleese
Fianna Fáil

Elected President

Michael D. Higgins
Labour Party

Mary McAleese
Fianna Fáil

Michael D. Higgins
Labour Party

The Irish presidential election of 2011 was the thirteenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and the first to be contested by a record seven candidates. It was held on Thursday, 27 October 2011. The election was held to elect a successor to Mary McAleese, with the winner scheduled to be inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland on 11 November 2011. Two constitutional referendums and a by-election for a vacant Dáil seat in the Dublin West constituency took place on the same day.

The seven candidates were Mary Davis, Seán Gallagher, Michael D. Higgins, Martin McGuinness, Gay Mitchell, David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon. Davis, Gallagher, Norris and Scallon (all running as Independents), secured their nominations via local authorities. Higgins was put forward by Labour, McGuinness was put forward by Sinn Féin and Mitchell was put forward by Fine Gael. The previously dominant Fianna Fáil party declined to put forward an official candidate following their disastrous general election campaign earlier that year. Norris, a civil rights campaigner credited with helping overthrow Ireland's laws criminalising homosexuality, was the leading candidate for much of the race, and had more than double the support of the other declared candidates in January 2011. He withdrew in August 2011 but returned to the race the following month due to his continuing widespread popular appeal.

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Wikipedia