Higgins leads as Norris congratulates Labour candidate

Veteran Labour Party politician Michael D Higgins is on course to be named Ireland’s ninth president, early reports suggest.

Tallies from the first couple of hours of the count indicate that the 70-year-old secured a huge bounce in support nationwide in the final days of the campaign.

Mr Higgins, who had been trailing in second place in the opinion polls, looks to have made massive gains in the wake of huge controversy over his closest rival, independent Sean Gallagher.

Senator David Norris, another independent, was the first of the seven candidates to offer congratulations to the Labour man.

“I’m quite the certain the next president will be Michael D Higgins and I’d like to send my love and congratulations to Michael D, to Sabina and the rest of the family,” he said.

“It must be a very, very happy day for them and I also think it’s a good day for Ireland because, although he is a Labour Party member, Michael D, like myself, is a little bit of a maverick and when you have such a concentration of power in the hands of the coalition I think it’s good to have somebody who will be in a position morally and intellectually to speak out on behalf of the marginalised.

“I know that Michael D will do that.

“So I’ll be very happy to be an Irish man under the presidency of Michael D Higgins.”

Early tally reports from count centres around the country put Mr Higgins up around the 40% mark with Mr Gallagher closer to 30%.

Despite the concession from the Senator, Ruairi Quinn, former Labour leader and current Education Minister, said it was too early to call the result for his candidate.

“I don’t want to count any chickens,” Mr Quinn said.

The first official results from the first counts in the 43 constituencies are expected at about 7pm.

However, voting patterns will be known much earlier and the final outcome is expected to be known late tonight, possibly by midnight.

The presidential field had been headed at the start of the week by Mr Gallagher, but he was dogged in the final campaign days by controversy over his political fundraising past and financial transactions in his businesses.

It had been expected that Mr Higgins would benefit most from questions over Mr Gallagher’s background in the Fianna Fáil party.

Gay Mitchell, candidate for the Government party Fine Gael, is not likely to poll strongly amid allegations that the grassroots were not behind him.

Others in the race are Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, whose intervention in the last candidates’ debate brought the questions over Mr Gallagher’s past to the fore and Senator David Norris, a former Trinity professor and Joycean scholar.

The also-rans look likely to be Mary Davis, who headed Special Olympics Ireland, and Dana Rosemary Scallon, former Eurovision winner and Eurosceptic MEP.

The turnout was well below the high 70% seen at the February general election but above the 47% seen at the last presidential election
.