2011 Irish presidential election

The 2011 Irish presidential election was the thirteenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and was contested by a record seven candidates. It was held on Thursday, 27 October 2011. 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.