Strong surge boosts Gallagher’s bid

A SURPRISE surge in the polls has left Sean Gallagher in a strong position to snatch the presidency, as the Independent was braced for a backlash from rivals.

The TV business pundit emerged as the main challenger to Labour’s front-runner Michael D Higgins in two snapshots of voting intentions.

The sudden rise in his support, which has almost doubled to 21% in a Red C poll for Paddy Power, is set to turn the spotlight on the Dragon’s Den host, with opponents likely to play-up his past close links to Fianna Fáil.

Mr Higgins remained out in front on 25% in the survey — up 7% in less than two weeks, with former frontrunner David Norris seeing his support slide seven points to 14%, with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness edging ahead of him on 16%.

The misfiring campaign of Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell remained in crisis as he registered just 10% backing after his aggressive attacks on Mr McGuinness’s IRA past appeared to turn-off voters unhappy with negative campaigning.

Independent Mary Davis also appeared to suffer from the publicity generated by her role on various state boards as her ratings slipped four points to 9%, while Dana anchored the filed on 5%.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan said Mr Mitchell would need to more than double his support to 23% if he was to have a chance of becoming President.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who is believed to have wanted former PD Pat Cox to be the party’s standard bearer for the Áras, insisted it was not too late for the FG presidential campaign to be turned around.

However, even among Fine Gael supporters, Mr Mitchell is running third.

The Red C poll, which broadly chimes with another survey, seemed to suggest the showdown on October 27 was narrowing to effectively a three-horse race between Higgins, Gallagher and McGuinness.

Closer inspection of the results suggested Higgins needs to appeal more to younger electors, while Gallagher lags with the older “grey vote”, and the Sinn Féin candidate is not proving very transfer friendly.

Despite seeing his support drop dramatically, controversy-splattered candidate Mr Norris can take comfort from the fact he is favourite amongst voters to have dinner with, as 19% say they would prefer to share a meal with him.

Gallagher was again a close second, garnering 17% of the dinner companion votes, with 13% preferring Higgins or McGuinness.

Mr Mitchell was the candidate least likely to be invited to dinner, with only 5% saying they wanted his company.