Irish urged to reject 'dirty tricks' in election

Ireland was electing a new president Thursday, with frontrunner Sean Gallagher urging voters to reject what he called a "dirty tricks" campaign mounted by former IRA commander Martin McGuinness. More than 3.1 million adults were entitled to vote, with the winner handed the ceremonial role of representing Ireland around the world as the republic tries to overcome economic woes and the shackles of an international bailout. The final polls at the weekend showed Gallagher, a businessman turned television personality who is standing as an independent, with a clear lead on 40 percent, but his advantage is in danger over a row about party donations. McGuinness, the former paramilitary who became Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, alleged in a potentially game-changing TV debate that Gallagher had accepted a donation from a convicted fuel smuggler for his former party. Gallagher accused McGuinness of foul play over the allegations of the 5,000-euro ($6,950) cheque for the Fianna Fail party, which lost heavily in this year's general election. Leading bookmaker Paddy Power predicted that the claims had had a disastrous effect on Gallagher, and installed Michael D. Higgins, a 70-year-old poet and former arts minister, as the new favourite. Higgins, representing Labour, the junior coalition partners, had been polling just 25 percent on Monday. He told AFP at his final campaign stop in Carlow, southeast Ireland, that he had seen a "huge surge in support" in recent days. Gallagher has spent the week angrily rejecting McGuinness' accusations of wrongdoing, and stressed that Ireland needed "hope and leadership, not bickering and backbiting" as it seeks to escape a deep economic hole. "I stand over everything I have done as being impeccable with honesty and integrity. I refute any allegations," he told RTE radio. "My view will not be diverted by tactics such as political assassination by Martin McGuinness or anyone else in Sinn Fein." In one of his final campaign rallies in his northern heartland of Cavan, Gallagher admitted to supporters: "It's going to be difficult to see how this election goes. Although McGuinness was lagging behind with just 15 percent, his considerable impact on the campaign could be felt in the Irish Independent newspaper, which on election day urged voters to shun him. It said McGuinness had "failed to be in any way honest with the electorate he wishes to represent and therefore does not deserve an endorsement at the ballot box". The paper accused McGuinness of lying about his role in the IRA and said he had been "consistently ambiguous in his condemnation of atrocities carried out by the Provisional IRA" in the three decades of strife in Northern Ireland." Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and were to close at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT). Seven candidates are standing, the largest ever field, to succeed Belfast-born Mary McAleese. Among other runners, independent senator David Norris, the first openly gay candidate, was on eight percent, and Gabriel Mitchell, a European Parliament lawmaker for Ireland's Fine Gael senior governing coalition party, on six percent. Two other independents, Mary Davis and 1970 Eurovision Song Contest winner Dana Rosemary Scallon, were locked at three percent. The holder of the seven-year post is responsible for receiving foreign heads of state and making visits abroad to promote Irish interests and strengthen links with the huge Irish diaspora. The ballot boxes will be opened on Friday, though the result will probably not be known before Saturday due to the complexities of the voting system. The single transferable vote system is used, whereby voters rank their choices. Candidates are eliminated one by one and their votes redistributed until one has an absolute majority.