{"id":137767,"date":"2025-10-22T07:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137767\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:06:15","slug":"what-happens-if-jim-gavin-wins-the-presidency-after-dropping-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137767\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens if Jim Gavin wins the presidency after dropping out?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Polling day in the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/presidential-election-2025\/\">presidential election<\/a> is on Friday, and two candidates remain in the race \u2014 Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Can Jim Gavin still win?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In simple terms, yes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He remains a candidate on the ballot paper, as the deadline for withdrawals passed on September 24.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/presidential-election-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-bottom:10px; width:100%; height:auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4823610_1_org_640x150_banner_election_large.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There were discussions between the Attorney General and the Presidential Election Returning Officer after Mr Gavin suspended his campaign, about whether it was possible to remove his name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, it was ultimately decided that Mr Gavin would remain on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This means he is still a valid candidate, and any votes cast for him will be counted as normal, meaning he could still win and become Ireland\u2019s 10th president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">What happens if he does win?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If Mr Gavin receives enough votes to beat both Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, he would become the 10th president of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It would be an unprecedented situation, requiring a dramatic shift in polling, with Ms Connolly currently leading on 38% and Ms Humphreys trailing on 20%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">What if he decides not to serve?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If Mr Gavin declined to serve as president, the country would face another election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, President Michael D Higgins\u2019 term still ends on November 11, meaning there would be a temporary vacancy in the office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Constitution requires a new presidential election to take place within 60 days of a vacancy arising.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This has happened before \u2014 including after the resignations of Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh and Mary Robinson, and following the death of Erskine Childers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">During any period without a president, the Presidential Commission assumes the duties of the office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Commission is made up of the Chief Justice, the Ceann Comhairle, and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Its duties include signing legislation into law, a task it typically carries out when the president is abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polling day in the presidential election is on Friday, and two candidates remain in the race \u2014 Catherine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81711,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-137767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-ieexplains","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}