Businessman tops Irish presidential poll

The poll on the Irish presidential election published on Monday showed that businessman Sean Gallagher was the most popular candidate. According to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll, Gallagher held a strong position with 40 percent of the vote, 15 percentage points ahead of the former Member of Parliament Michael D Higgins in second place. Founder of the company Smarthomes, Gallagher is best known in Ireland for his appearances on the popular television show Dragon's Den, in which small-scale business people pitch their ideas to obtain investment. The youngest candidate in the race, Gallagher has adopted the use of social media which gave him an edge in the campaign. He has the highest number of followers on Facebook and the second highest on Twitter among the candidates. However, rival candidate Higgins said voters are now looking for substance and he was a better and more substantial candidate than Gallagher. Gallagher said that while he was heartened by the latest opinion poll, he was not complacent and the important thing for his campaign now was to ensure that the greatest number of people vote in the election. Third in the poll, Martin McGuinness said the election can be a new beginning for Ireland and that he would stand for jobs, fairness and decency. McGuinness, who is deputy first minister of Britain's Northern Ireland, has dubbed himself "the people's president" during his campaign and said he is the only candidate who is not part of the political establishment and who will stand up for people. Gay Mitchell, the candidate supported by the leading government party Fine Gael has dropped three points in this most recent poll putting him at just 6 percent. The 2011 Irish presidential election will take place on Thursday with seven candidates vying for the next Irish presidency.