{"id":331967,"date":"2025-10-25T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331967\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T17:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T17:05:11","slug":"connolly-set-to-be-irelands-next-president-after-rival-concedes-defeat-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331967\/","title":{"rendered":"Connolly set to be Ireland\u2019s next president after rival concedes defeat | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Catherine Connolly, a pro-Palestine, left-wing candidate, is on course for a landslide victory as vote counting continues.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025<\/p>\n<p>Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p>share2<\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<p>Left-wing independent candidate Catherine Connolly is set to become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/24\/ireland-voting-for-new-president-in-hotly-contested-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ireland\u2019s next president<\/a> after her rival conceded defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Vote counting in the presidential election was still under way on Saturday, but Heather Humphreys of the centre-right Fine Gael party told reporters she \u201cwanted to congratulate Catherine Connolly on becoming the next president of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/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 said.<\/p>\n<p>Voting slips were being counted by hand with the final result of Friday\u2019s election expected to be declared later on Saturday once all 43 electoral constituencies across the country have completed counting.<\/p>\n<p>Polls had suggested consistent and strong voter support for Connolly, 68, over her rival Humphreys, 64.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Prime Minister and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris also was quick to wish 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.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4059041\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/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>Connolly, a former barrister and independent lawmaker since 2016, 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\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">war in Gaza<\/a> and has 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>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>The winner will succeed Michael D Higgins, who has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms.<\/p>\n<p>If confirmed, Connolly 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, is on course for a landslide victory as vote counting continues. Published&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90,440,51,119,50,80,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-331967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115435900223781782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}