Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdraws from Irish presidential race

One of the three main candidates in Ireland’s presidential election has quit the race in a bombshell announcement that has upended the contest.

Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after revelations about an unpaid debt to a former tenant, turning the election into an unpredictable two-horse race between a centre-right former government minister and an independent leftwing member of parliament.

Gavin, 54, a political novice who was parachuted into the campaign after careers in sport, aviation and the military, quit after it emerged he had failed to return a rent overpayment of €3,300 (£2,865) when he was a landlord about 16 years ago, when he was in financial difficulty.

“I made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself. I am now taking steps to address the matter,” he said. “I have also thought long and hard about the potential impact of the ongoing campaign on the wellbeing of my family and friends.

“Taking all these considerations onboard, I have decided to withdraw from the presidential election contest with immediate effect and return to the arms of my family.”

The biggest shock in a presidential campaign in living memory narrowed the contest to Heather Humphreys, a former cabinet minister who is running for the ruling centre-right Fine Gael party, and Catherine Connolly, an outspoken pro-Palestinian voice who is backed by Sinn Féin and small leftwing opposition parties.

Gavin’s exit also triggered a crisis for the taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, who had staked his authority by selecting an untried candidate over the doubts of party colleagues.

Martin said Gavin did not want to “bring controversy” to the presidency and was right to withdraw. “Jim has accepted that he made an error in relation to an issue that has arisen in recent days.”

Despite a reputation for competence and success in business and sport – Gavin had steered Dublin’s Gaelic football team to five consecutive championship victories – his campaign had stumbled through gaffes that left him trailing in an opinion poll even before the unpaid debt disclosure.

Fianna Fáil figures who had opposed selecting Gavin said the fiasco was a “serious miscalculation” that would have “consequences” – a thinly veiled warning to Martin.

Gavin’s name may remain on the ballot in the election on 24 October, which will end the 14-year tenure of Michael D Higgins, but voters now face a binary choice between a centrist establishment candidate and an independent leftwinger. A poll taken before Gavin’s exit gave Connolly 32% support and Humphreys 23%, with Gavin on 15%.

Under electoral rules, voters select candidates in order of preference. If no candidate exceeds 50% on the first count, the candidate with the least first preference votes is eliminated and their votes are transferred to the next preference.

It was expected that if Gavin was eliminated, most of his votes would transfer to Humphreys, and vice versa, boosting the chance that a pro-government candidate would secure the presidency for the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition.

The presidency is a largely symbolic post but Higgins and his predecessors Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson turned it into a platform on global issues.

Connolly, 68, from Galway, would bring a strong leftwing voice to that tradition. She has assailed neoliberal economics and said Hamas is “part of the fabric” of the Palestinian people. She has accused Nato of militarism and likened Germany’s increased defence spending to the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler rearmed the country.

Humphreys, 62, has faced scrutiny over her record as a minister in governments that presided over a housing crisis. A Presbyterian from the border county of Monaghan, she has also been criticised over her inability to speak Irish but said her Protestant heritage could help win over Northern Ireland’s unionists in a united Ireland.