# 1973 Irish presidential 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.

## Campaign

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

## Result

1973 Irish presidential election :
| Candidate | Nominated by | % 1st Pref | Count 1 |
| Erskine H. Childers | Oireachtas: Fianna Fáil | 52.0 | 635,867 |
| Tom O'Higgins | Oireachtas: Fine Gael | 48.0 | 587,771 |
| Electorate: 1,977,817 Valid: 1,223,638 Spoilt: 6,946 (0.5%) Quota: 611,820 Turnout: 62.2% ||||||
Popular vote
Childers
52.0%
O'Higgins
48.0% :
Results by constituency :
| Constituency | Childers | Childers | O'Higgins | O'Higgins |
| Constituency | Votes | % | Votes | % |
| Carlow–Kilkenny | 23,231 | 52.0 | 21,458 | 48.0 |
| Cavan | 14,001 | 51.1 | 13,399 | 48.9 |
| Clare | 16,412 | 61.4 | 10,335 | 38.6 |
| Clare–South Galway | 14,470 | 56.9 | 10,946 | 43.1 |
| Cork City North-West | 15,589 | 62.9 | 9,196 | 37.1 |
| Cork City South-East | 15,918 | 60.0 | 10,625 | 40.0 |
| Cork Mid | 21,603 | 53.2 | 19,011 | 46.8 |
| Cork North-East | 20,887 | 54.8 | 17,253 | 45.2 |
| Cork South-West | 13,745 | 47.6 | 15,102 | 52.4 |
| Donegal North-East | 12,253 | 56.8 | 9,329 | 43.2 |
| Donegal–Leitrim | 14,326 | 55.1 | 11,689 | 44.9 |
| Dublin Central | 12,081 | 47.4 | 13,385 | 52.6 |
| Dublin County North | 18,625 | 49.5 | 18,993 | 50.5 |
| Dublin County South | 15,561 | 48.4 | 16,586 | 51.6 |
| Dublin North-Central | 14,012 | 48.0 | 15,162 | 52.0 |
| Dublin North-East | 16,613 | 47.9 | 18,081 | 52.1 |
| Dublin North-West | 12,102 | 48.2 | 12,981 | 51.8 |
| Dublin South-Central | 15,117 | 49.5 | 15,399 | 50.5 |
| Dublin South-East | 11,540 | 49.7 | 11,698 | 50.3 |
| Dublin South-West | 10,924 | 46.4 | 12,641 | 53.6 |
| Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown | 18,037 | 47.9 | 19,655 | 52.1 |
| Galway North-East | 12,005 | 50.5 | 11,756 | 49.5 |
| Galway West | 12,920 | 55.3 | 10,458 | 44.7 |
| Kerry North | 12,206 | 52.5 | 11,038 | 47.5 |
| Kerry South | 12,280 | 52.6 | 11,071 | 47.4 |
| Kildare | 15,689 | 54.1 | 13,291 | 45.9 |
| Laois–Offaly | 21,078 | 50.4 | 20,740 | 49.6 |
| Limerick East | 17,897 | 51.4 | 16,952 | 48.6 |
| Limerick West | 16,013 | 55.6 | 12,772 | 44.4 |
| Longford–Westmeath | 17,324 | 51.9 | 16,050 | 48.1 |
| Louth | 14,556 | 55.7 | 11,575 | 44.3 |
| Mayo East | 11,290 | 48.2 | 12,141 | 51.8 |
| Mayo West | 10,983 | 48.7 | 11,558 | 51.3 |
| Meath | 14,542 | 53.7 | 12,534 | 46.3 |
| Monaghan | 13,706 | 52.8 | 12,261 | 47.2 |
| Roscommon–Leitrim | 12,884 | 47.7 | 14,127 | 52.3 |
| Sligo–Leitrim | 12,832 | 50.0 | 12,829 | 50.0 |
| Tipperary North | 14,723 | 53.6 | 12,748 | 46.4 |
| Tipperary South | 20,002 | 55.0 | 16,339 | 45.0 |
| Waterford | 15,785 | 54.6 | 13,116 | 45.4 |
| Wexford | 16,279 | 46.3 | 18,878 | 53.7 |
| Wicklow | 13,826 | 52.3 | 12,613 | 47.7 |
| Total | 635,867 | 52.0 | 587,771 | 48.0 |