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DUBLIN — Michael D. Higgins, a veteran left-wing politician, poet and human-rights activist, was declared the winner Saturday of Ireland’s presidential election with nearly 57 percent of votes, and he pledged to lift the spirits of a struggling nation.
The diminutive Higgins, 70, beamed with pride as he received congratulations inside Dublin Castle from government leaders and most rival candidates.
He announced that he would resign immediately as president of the Labor Party, the junior member of Ireland’s coalition government, because his new role as ceremonial head of state meant he must be “a president for all the people.”
