Michael D Higgins (centre) and wife Sabina Coyne (right) are congratulated by Sinn Feins’ Martin McGuinness after being declared the winner in the Irish presidential election in Dublin Castle on Friday night
DPA/Dublin

Michael D Higgins thanked “the over 1mn people who said I was acceptable to them as the ninth president of Ireland,” as he was declared elected yesterday at Dublin Castle.
“The Irish people have given me a clear mandate for a clear set of ideas and I will be a president for all the people,” the Labour candidate and former arts minister said in his acceptance speech.
Higgins got 39.6% of first-preference votes and was elected president after the fourth count with 1,007,104 votes. “This campaign involved a choice about which Ireland we wanted to be,” he said, vowing to create a society based on “inclusion, equality and respect.”
Congratulating Higgins, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he would be “an outstanding president.”
Higgins’ nearest rival, independent candidate Sean Gallagher, gained 28.5% of the vote in Thursday’s election to replace Mary McAleese. Sinn Fein candidate and Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness came in third with 13.7% of the vote. Gay Mitchell, candidate for the ruling Fine Gael, the Labour Party’s senior coalition partner, captured just 6.4% of the vote.
Turnout was 55.6% in Thursday’s polls, which had a record seven candidates competing for the role.
Four counts were required to bring Higgins past the 51% necessary to be officially elected, but it became apparent on Friday that he had an unassailable lead on Gallagher.
His six presidential rivals each conceded defeat in turn on Friday night, offering their congratulations to the 70-year-old.
Outsider Gallagher, who had a 15-point lead in the opinion polls last weekend, saw his support crumble in a crushing defeat attributed to his ties to Fianna Fail.
Labour Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said it had been an honour to nominate Higgins for the job.
“This is a good day for the Labour Party. I’m really happy for him. I’m really delighted that he succeeded,” Gilmore said.
Sinn Fein’s McGuinness alleged on television last Monday that Gallagher had received a 5,000 euro ($6,950) cheque on Fianna Fail’s behalf from a businessman with a conviction for tax fraud and fuel smuggling.
McGuinness is claiming a tactical victory, having beaten the candidate of governing Fine Gael, which led the attacks on him over his Irish Republican Army past.
“We will have to take stock of the decision of the electorate. We are the biggest party in the country and we will have to work to remain there,” Fine Gael general secretary Tom Curran said yesterday.
Among the also-rans were independent Senator David Norris with 6.2% of the vote. The gay activist’s campaign imploded after revelations that he had written letters pleading for clemency for his former lover, convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy in Israel.
Independent candidate and former Eurovision winner Dana Rosemary Scallon, won just 2.9% of the vote, while Special Olympics director for Europe and Eurasia Mary Davis won 2.7% support.
Higgins will be inaugurated on November 11, the day after McAleese, who served two seven-year terms, leaves office.