Connolly set to win Irish presidency

London [UK], October 26: Heather Humphreys has congratulated Catherine Connolly as Connolly looked secure to become the next president of Ireland by a significant margin.
Connolly said earlier on Saturday that she was "absolutely delighted" with tallies indicating she is the clear victor.
The electorate had the choice between left-wing independent Connolly, former Cabinet minister Heather Humphreys and ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin, until he withdrew from campaigning three weeks ago.
From early on Saturday, Connolly was ahead in count centres nationwide.
There also appeared to be a significant number of spoiled votes.
Speaking to reporters at the Cavan-Monaghan count centre, Humphreys said: "Catherine will be a president for all of us and she will be my president, and I really would like to wish her all the very, very best.
"I have absolutely not one regret." Speaking to reporters in Galway earlier on Saturday, Connolly said: "I am absolutely delighted with the result and I want to thank all my supporters.
"Actually, I want to thank everybody - even those who did not vote for me.
"I understand their concerns in relation to who will represent them best." As ballot boxes opened and votes are sorted ahead of the official count, activists and volunteers observe the process to form unofficial tallies.
These calculations put Connolly on path for victory, with different regions putting that candidate on between 50% and 75% of the vote.
There were also a significant number of spoiled votes with anti-government messages on them, including "no democracy," "EU puppets" and "no from me."
Among the messages on spoiled votes were "Maria Steen", who failed to get enough nominations to become a candidate, and references to an alleged assault on a 10-year-old girl that sparked anti-immigration demonstrations in west Dublin this week.
Local Sinn Fein and member or Teachta Dala (TD) of the lower hours of the Irish parliament Eoin Ó Broin said the scale of the vote for Connolly was "very, very significant."
He added: "A huge Catherine Connolly vote here, an absolute collapse not just of the Fianna Fail vote - and that was to be expected - but of the Fine Gael vote as well, (which is) really remarkable in a constituency where Fine Gael used to have two TDs and currently have a sitting junior minister.
"And then of course there is a significant number of spoils, you can't deny that. And what it tells us is there are people out there who are very angry, who are very unhappy.
"Our job in the time ahead is to try and convince more of those people that there is an alternative, there is a message of hope, and we hear the fact that they are not happy. So there is a job of work to do afterwards."
Aontú leader Peadar Toibín has revealed he spoiled his vote for the presidential election.
Source: Qatar Tribune