LABOUR’S Michael D Higgins will be the next President of Ireland after topping the first count tonight.
The other candidates have already accepted the result and congratulated the veteran politician on winning the race to the Aras.
The first count result was as follows: Higgins 39.6% (701,101), Gallagher 28.5% (504,964); McGuinness 13.7% (243,030); Mitchell 6.4% (113,321); Norris 6.2% (109,469); Scallon 2.9% (51,220); Davis 2.7% (48,657).
Mr Higgins said afterwards: “I want to pay tribute to all the other candidates and I promise to be a President for all of the people.”
Dana and Mary Davis have now been eliminated and their votes are now being re-distributed.
But no-one can catch Higgins who is expected to pick up transfers from all the other parties.
Sean Gallagher still managed to bag more than half a million votes, with evidence of widespread support from the Fianna Fail grassroots.
And Sinn Fein are said to be delighted with a quarter of a million first preference votes.
But it was a poor election result for Fine Gael, with Gay Mitchell finishing the first count in fourth place – 130,000 behind Martin McGuinness, and just slightly ahead of David Norris.
The count will continue into the night.
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