Catherine Connolly has ‘huge’ lead on Heather Humphreys - latest poll reveals

Catherine Connolly is polling at 38%, Heather Humphreys is at 20% and Jim Gavin - who has stopped campaigning - is on 5%, according to the latest presidential election poll from the Irish Times / Ipsos B&A. 

The Irish Times Election daily podcast called Catherine Connolly’s lead “huge”, and said that she is leading across all demographics - excluding farmers over 65. 

12% of those surveyed said that they would not vote, while 6% said that they plan to spoil their vote. 

18% of those polled who said they would vote said they are undecided how they will vote.

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The poll was conducted using face to face interviews on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - and had a sample size of 1,200. The margin of error of the poll is calculated to be at 2.8%.

Of those surveyed, 67% believe that Jim Gavin was right to exit the presidential race. 

55% would like the constitution to be changed to make it easier to run for the presidency. 

45% of those polled said they would have liked to have seen Maria Steen facilitated to run in the presidential race. 

Voters will go to the polls on 24 October. The turnout at the previous presidential election was 44%.