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The 68-year-old Galway West TD has increased her lead over Heather Humphreys. The latest Business Post/Red C poll – the last before polling day – puts her 19 percentage points ahead of the former Fine Gael deputy leader. Ms. Connolly is now on 44 per cent with Humphreys on 25 per cent. The erstwhile Fianna Fáil candidate, Jim Gavin, who remains on the ballot despite withdrawing, is on 10 per cent, according to the survey. Though an independent Ms. Connolly has been backed by Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit-Solidarity. The former psychologist and barrister was once a member of Labour but left the party in 2007. Ms. Humphreys, aged 65, is a long-standing member of Fine Gael and was first elected as a TD for Cavan-Monaghan in 2011. She was appointed to Cabinet in 2014 and held several portfolios prior to her retirement from front-line politics last year. From the predominantly Protestant village of Drum in Monaghan, she has spoken of her Orange heritage, and identifies as a Presbyterian republican. Friday’s Presidential election is the first to feature only two candidates since 1973, when Fianna Fáil nominee Erskine Childers, succeeded Éamon de Valera, and, incidentally, became the second Protestant President of Ireland after Douglas Hyde. The poll is the first contested election since 1990 not to include someone from Derry on the ballot paper. It is the first contest since 1973 not to include someone from the Six Counties. Under Article 12 of the constitution ‘every citizen who has the right to vote at an election for members of Dáil Éireann shall have the right to vote at an election for President’. Irish citizens from the North remain excluded from the franchise. This is the second Presidential election since a 2013 Constitutional Convention recommended Irish citizens living in the North should be given the vote. The total electorate is 3,612,957. There are 127,789 eligible voters in Donegal. Polling will take place between the hours of 7am and 10pm on Friday. Voting is by secret ballot and by means of the single transferable vote (STV). Under the STV system voters are invited to mark their first, second and third preferences against the three candidates with a ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’. The count will get underway on Saturday. Locally this will take place at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny. The Central Count Centre will be in Dublin Castle. If one of the candidates receives more first preference votes than the quota – fifty per cent of all valid votes (excluding spoilt papers) plus one – they will be announced President Elect. If none of the candidates surpasses this figure the second preferences of the lowest polling candidate will be transferred to the two remaining contestants to decide the election. Due to the small number of candidates, the count could be concluded earlier than in recent elections, with a result possible by Saturday afternoon. However, recounts at local constituency count centres may delay the process. The victor in tomorrow’s poll will replace President Michael D. Higgins when his second seven year term as President ends on November 11.
