Irish Presidential Election - Overview

Overview

Presidential elections are conducted in line with Article 12 of the Constitution and under the Presidential Elections Act 1993, as amended. The President of Ireland is formally elected by the citizens of Ireland once in every seven years, except in the event of premature vacancy, when an election must be held within sixty days. Constitutionally, the election must be held not more than 60 days before the ending of the term of office of the incumbent, or within 60 days of the office becoming vacant. The exact date will be fixed by an order made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Elections are conducted by means of the alternative vote (also called instant runoff voting), which is the single-winner analogue of the single transferable vote used in other Irish elections. Although the constitution calls the system "proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote", a single-winner election cannot be proportional. All Irish citizens entered on the current electoral register are eligible to vote. While both Irish and UK citizens resident in the state may vote in elections to Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), only Irish citizens of at least eighteen years of age may vote in the election of the President.

To qualify, candidates must:

• be a citizen of Ireland,
• be at least 35 years of age, and
• be nominated by:
  • at least twenty of the 226 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
  • at least 4 of the 34 county or city councils, or
  • him- or herself, in the case of an incumbent or former president who has served one term.

The election order will declare the last day on which nominations may be received. If a member of the Oireachtas or a County or City council nominate more than one candidate, only the first nomination paper received from them will be deemed valid.

If there is only a single candidate they will be deemed elected without a poll. For this reason, where there is a consensus among political parties, the President may be elected without the occurrence of an actual ballot. No one may serve as President for more than two terms.