Second poll puts Higgins ahead, Gallagher second
Presidential hopeful Michael D Higgins is on course to take a quarter of the vote, with independent candidate Sean Gallagher in second place in the race, according to an opinion poll.
With the top three completed by Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness on 16%, the PaddyPower/Red C poll backs up trends with the surprise performance by Mr Gallagher.
The poll also has Independent Senator David Norris falling back to fourth with 14% of the vote, a drop of 7%, having led a similar poll last week with a 21% share.
The issue of clemency letters for his former lover has dominated his campaign and while the pollsters claim he is still liked by the public, and the most popular candidate for a dinner invite, his suitability for the presidency is in doubt.
Gay Mitchell, the Fine Gael candidate, follows with 10%, a fall of 3% in the past week – a startlingly bad show for the Government party. Independent Mary Davis also saw her vote decline by 3%, leaving her in sixth place on 9%, and Dana is last with 5%.
The poll was carried out using 1,000 interviews between October 3-5 this week among adults across the country, including 908 Irish citizens. It was still running up to 9pm last night.
The figures differ slightly from the Irish Times Ipsos/MRBI poll also published today - – which put Michael D Higgins on 23% and Sean Gallagher on 20% - but are within the 3% margin of error.
Pollsters claimed the race for the Áras is a case of young versus old among the top two candidates.
They said Mr D Higgins needs to do better among younger voters and Mr Gallagher needs to persuade older voters more on his credentials.
On Senator Norris's clemency letters 59% of people polled believe he should publish. More than a third of his own supporters back publication.
Regardless of who they would vote for, almost half think that Michael D Higgins will win the election.
And opposition to Mr McGuinness is also significant after people were asked who they did not want to see in the Áras – securing 34%. Dana and David Norris followed on 18% and 16%.
