A presidential election was held in Ireland on Thursday, 27 October 2011, and was contested by a record seven candidates. The election was held to elect a successor to Mary McAleese, with the winner 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. Higgins was nominated by Labour, McGuinness by Sinn Féin and Mitchell by Fine Gael, while Independent candidates Davis, Gallagher, Norris and Scallon were nominated by local authorities. The previously dominant Fianna Fáil party declined to nominate a candidate following their disastrous general election campaign earlier that year. Michael D. Higgins was ultimately elected as president. Higgins also became the first politician in Irish history to obtain over 700,000 first preference votes and over one million votes in a final count.
To date, this is the most recent Irish presidential election that required additional counts.
Procedure
To qualify, candidates had to:
- be a citizen of Ireland
- be at least 35 years of age
- be nominated by:
- at least twenty of the 226 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), or
- at least four of the 34 county or city councils, or
- themself, in the case of a former president who has served one term.
Presidential elections are conducted under the Presidential Elections Act 1993, as amended. Constitutionally, the election must be held not more than 60 days before the ending of the term of office of the incumbent, or within 60 days of the office becoming vacant. On 27 July the government announced that the election would be held on 27 October 2011. An order was made on 30 August by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government declaring 28 September to be the last day on which nominations could be received. The election was conducted by means of the alternative vote (also called instant runoff voting), which is the single-winner analogue of the single transferable vote used in other Irish elections. Although the constitution calls the system "proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote", a single-winner election cannot be proportional. All Irish citizens entered on the current electoral register were eligible to vote.
Nomination campaign
Following the general election in February 2011, as well as subsequent Seanad election, only three political parties had the 20 members of Oireachtas required to nominate a candidate: Fine Gael (76 TDs and 19 senators), the Labour Party (37 TDs and 13 senators) and Fianna Fáil (19 TDs and 14 senators). Sinn Féin, the next largest party in the Dáil Éireann, had 14 TDs and 3 senators. For other candidates to be nominated by Oireachtas members, support would have been required from members of smaller parties, independents (of which there were then 14 TDs and 11 senators) or excess members of the three larger parties.
Fine Gael
Gay Mitchell, MEP for Dublin and former TD for Dublin South-Central was chosen as the Fine Gael candidate at a special convention held on 9 July 2011.
Fine Gael had initially produced a shortlist of three candidates in March 2011: John Bruton, Seán Kelly and Mairead McGuinness. Bruton, a former Taoiseach and European Union Ambassador, ruled himself out of the contest on 28 May 2011. Kelly, an MEP and former President of the Gaelic Athletic Association indicated on 1 June 2011 that he would not be seeking the party's nomination, and wished to continue serving in the European Parliament. The party approached Nobel laureate poet Seamus Heaney in late 2010, but Heaney declined to stand unless he was an agreed cross-party candidate.
Four candidates sought nomination at the party convention in July 2011:
- Gay Mitchell, MEP for Dublin and former TD for Dublin South-Central. He had announced that he would be seeking the party's nomination in June 2011, having been contacted by "a large number of senior figures in the party".
- Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament and former Progressive Democrats/Independent MEP. Early in June 2011, press reports indicated that Cox, who had stated his desire to stand as an independent candidate, was seeking to join Fine Gael to be eligible for the party's nomination. His application to join the party was accepted by Fine Gael's National Executive Committee on 14 June. He launched his campaign for the Fine Gael nomination on 17 June 2011, describing it as a "one-shot opportunity" and that if he failed to be nominated by the party he would not stand as an independent. Cox was claimed by the Irish Independent to be the preferred choice of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Fine Gael leadership.
- Avril Doyle, former MEP and TD. On 21 June 2011, she announced her candidacy. She withdrew from the contest on 7 July stating that she realised she was unlikely to receive the nomination.
- Mairead McGuinness, MEP for the East constituency, former presenter of Ear to the Ground on RTÉ One and former journalist with the Irish Independent. She announced her bid for the Fine Gael nomination in April 2011.
Voting was by secret ballot, with an electoral college consisting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party (TDs, Senators and MEPs) with 70% of the vote, county and city councillors (20%) and the twelve-member executive council (10%).
On the announcement that Mitchell had won the nomination, the Sunday Independent stated that party leader Enda Kenny was seen to slump and "could barely contain his disappointment". When questioned by a journalist on his apparent disappointment, Kenny responded sharply "Am I supposed to be going around grinning like a Cheshire Cat at everything?"
Labour Party
The Labour Party candidate was Michael D. Higgins. He was chosen jointly by the party's National Executive and the Labour Parliamentary Party at a special convention on 19 June 2011.
The former TD and minister originally indicated that he was interested in receiving the party's nomination in September 2010. Like Higgins, two other candidates put their names forward in late May 2011:
- Fergus Finlay, Chief Executive of Barnardo's children's charity, announced on 9 September 2010 that he would seek the Labour Party's nomination for president.
- Kathleen O'Meara, former Senator, also put her name forward for the party nomination.
Fianna Fáil
For the first time in any presidential election, Fianna Fáil neither ran a candidate nor supported the nomination of a candidate. The decision was made at a meeting of the parliamentary party on 31 August 2011, and was in line with the recommendations of the six-person subcommittee formed by the party leader Micheál Martin to consider the matter.
In June 2011 press reports had indicated that the party was unlikely to run a candidate both for financial reasons and also because it was unlikely that a Fianna Fáil nominee could be successful. In early August 2011 there was press speculation that RTÉ broadcaster Gay Byrne might seek a nomination. On 6 August Micheál Martin rang Byrne at his holiday home to indicate that Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members would facilitate his nomination. Byrne indicated that he had yet to make a decision on whether to put his name forward, but said that if he did so he would not run under the Fianna Fáil banner but as an independent, albeit with the assistance of the party's organisation. "Fianna Fáil are convinced no matter who they put up will be unelectable, so they're giving me their support" he told the Irish Independent. Éamon Ó Cuív, the party's deputy leader and member of the committee tasked with deciding on their strategy for the election stated that "I know of no approach to Gay Byrne... Nobody has discussed the issue with me — good, bad or indifferent." On 13 August Byrne informed Martin that he would not be going forward for nomination. He stated that the idea of running had been "foisted on him and he had not known anything about it and what it would involve". This followed unease among Fianna Fáil parliamentary party Oireachtas members, with a number unhappy that a candidate was being imposed by the leadership without discussion.
On 16 August 2011, the Irish Examiner reported that Micheál Martin had moved to pull the party out of the presidential race over the fallout from the approach to Gay Byrne, the cost involved and the slim chance of a candidate being elected. On 24 August, however, the party's deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív told Raidió na Gaeltachta that he believed the party should put forward a candidate.
Several members had expressed an interest in the party nomination:
- Brian Crowley, MEP, said in The Irish Times on 29 September 2008 that he would like to stand for president in 2011. In July 2011 he wrote to members of the parliamentary party confirming that he wished to contest the election as the Fianna Fáil candidate. On 23 August Crowley indicated that he would not be seeking a nomination. He stated that the party leadership "has demonstrated that it does not want an internal party candidate to contest the upcoming presidential election. So, with much disappointment, I do not now feel free to seek the Fianna Fáil nomination."
- Éamon Ó Cuív, TD for Galway West and former minister, expressed an interest in the office once held by his grandfather, Éamon de Valera.
- Senator Mary White had announced her intention to stand for the Fianna Fáil nomination in 2008, but in May 2011 said that she would not be seeking the nomination.
- Mary Hanafin also expressed an interest in seeking the nomination.
Following the decision by Fianna Fáil not to run their own candidate, there was speculation that some party members might be prepared to nominate an independent candidate. However, on 11 September the party's chief whip, Seán Ó Fearghail, made it clear that individual TDs and senators would not be permitted to sign the nomination papers of independent candidates. He said that if the party decided to support a candidacy it would be done collectively.
A meeting of the parliamentary party was held on 15 September at which the issue of the presidential election was raised. Unexpectedly, one of the party's senators, Labhrás Ó Murchú, sought nominations to run as an independent candidate. This was widely seen as a challenge to the authority of Micheál Martin. The extended meeting broke up without agreement. The parliamentary party met again on 20 September. Senator Ó Murchú withdrew his request for a nomination and a motion was passed that the party's Oireachtas members would not nominate or endorse any candidate. The decision was seen as a severe blow to the attempts to secure a nomination by David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon who were expected to need signatures from individual Fianna Fáil members.
Sinn Féin
At the party's Ard Comhairle meeting in Dublin in June 2011, the party's leader, Gerry Adams TD, ruled himself out as a candidate. He had previously expressed a wish to be elected president in time for the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.
There had been reports in July that artist Robert Ballagh was "seriously considering a run for the presidency", and had been in talks with Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party and People Before Profit Alliance. A Sinn Féin source confirmed there had been "very informal discussions", However, on 25 July Ballagh ruled himself out.
In a keynote speech at the party's Ard Fheis on 10 September Gerry Adams said that he felt that Sinn Féin should support the nomination of "a candidate who is capable of winning the support of progressive and nationalist opinion... who will reflect the broad republican spirit of the Irish people at this time". He went on to state that the party's Ard Comhairle would consider the matter on 17 September.
On 16 September it was revealed that the party would seek to have Martin McGuinness, deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, nominated to contest the election. With 14 TDs and three senators, Sinn Féin were three short of the required twenty Oireachtas members to nominate a candidate for the presidency. Soon after the nomination was announced, four Independent TDs agreed to nominate McGuinness, securing his nomination: Michael Healy-Rae and Tom Fleming (both representing Kerry South), Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (Roscommon–South Leitrim) and Finian McGrath (Dublin North-Central). Both 'Ming' Flanagan and McGrath had previously pledged their support to Norris.
Independent
In order to secure a nomination, a number of non-party politicians sought the support of either 20 members of the Oireachtas or four city or county councils.