1973 Irish presidential election

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Infobox election The 1973 Irish presidential election was held on Wednesday, 30 May 1973. The outgoing president Éamon de Valera was ineligible for re-election after serving two terms in office. Former Tánaiste Erskine H. Childers, nominated by Fianna Fáil, was elected as president of Ireland, defeating Fine Gael deputy leader, Tom O'Higgins, who had come within 1% of defeating Éamon de Valera in the 1966 presidential election.

Nomination process

Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president could be nominated by:

• at least twenty of the 204 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
• at least four of 31 councils of the administrative counties, including county boroughs.

On 25 April, the Minister for Local Government made the order for the presidential election, with noon on 8 May as the date for nominations, and 30 May as the date of polling.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Campaign

O'Higgins was approved as the Fine Gael candidate on 31 January.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Childers was approved as the Fianna Fáil candidate on 6 April.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> George Colley was director of elections for Childers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> O'Higgins was the early favourite to win, with odds of 1/2, against 6/4 for Childers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Result

Results by constituency

Constituency	Childers		O'Higgins
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Carlow–Kilkenny	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|23,231	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.0	21,458	48.0
Cavan	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,001	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.1	13,399	48.9
Clare	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|16,412	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|61.4	10,335	38.6
Clare–South Galway	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,470	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|56.9	10,946	43.1
Cork City North-West	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,589	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|62.9	9,196	37.1
Cork City South-East	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,918	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|60.0	10,625	40.0
Cork Mid	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|21,603	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|53.2	19,011	46.8
Cork North-East	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|20,887	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|54.8	17,253	45.2
Cork South-West	13,745	47.6	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,102	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.4
Donegal North-East	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,253	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|56.8	9,329	43.2
Donegal–Leitrim	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,326	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|55.1	11,689	44.9
Dublin Central	12,081	47.4	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|13,385	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.6
Dublin County North	18,625	49.5	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|18,993	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.5
Dublin County South	15,561	48.4	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|16,586	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.6
Dublin North-Central	14,012	48.0	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,162	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.0
Dublin North-East	16,613	47.9	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|18,081	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.1
Dublin North-West	12,102	48.2	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,981	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.8
Dublin South-Central	15,117	49.5	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,399	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.5
Dublin South-East	11,540	49.7	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|11,698	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.3
Dublin South-West	10,924	46.4	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,641	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|53.6
Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown	18,037	47.9	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|19,655	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.1
Galway North-East	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,005	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.5	11,756	49.5
Galway West	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,920	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|55.3	10,458	44.7
Kerry North	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,206	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.5	11,038	47.5
Kerry South	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,280	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.6	11,071	47.4
Kildare	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,689	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|54.1	13,291	45.9
Laois–Offaly	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|21,078	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.4	20,740	49.6
Limerick East	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|17,897	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.4	16,952	48.6
Limerick West	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|16,013	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|55.6	12,772	44.4
Longford–Westmeath	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|17,324	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.9	16,050	48.1
Louth	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,556	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|55.7	11,575	44.3
Mayo East	11,290	48.2	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,141	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.8
Mayo West	10,983	48.7	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|11,558	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|51.3
Meath	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,542	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|53.7	12,534	46.3
Monaghan	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|13,706	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.8	12,261	47.2
Roscommon–Leitrim	12,884	47.7	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,127	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.3
Sligo–Leitrim	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|12,832	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|50.0	12,829	50.0
Tipperary North	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|14,723	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|53.6	12,748	46.4
Tipperary South	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|20,002	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|55.0	16,339	45.0
Waterford	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|15,785	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|54.6	13,116	45.4
Wexford	16,279	46.3	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|18,878	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|53.7
Wicklow	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|13,826	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|52.3	12,613	47.7
Total	635,867	52.0	587,771	48.0