Just to keep the heat of the SF lads and in the interests of balance... http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0919/breaking21.html Dana Rosemary Scallon has announced her intention to seek a nomination to contest the forthcoming presidential election as an Independent. The former MEP and Eurovision winner has been canvassing the level of support for a presidential bid from Independents. She has also been seeking the support of Fianna Fáil to enter the race. To secure a place on the ballot paper, Ms Scallon would need the backing of four county councils or 20 Oireachtas members. She ran for the presidency in 1997 and secured her place on the ballot paper by winning a nomination from four county councils. Ms Scallon finished third in that election behind Mary McAleese of Fianna Fáil and Mary Banotti of Fine Gael. But she was ahead of Labour Party candidate Adi Roche. She picked up more than 175,000 first-preference votes in that poll, winning the support of 13.8 per cent of the electorate, and expressed interest in running again in 2004 but was unable to secure a nomination. President McAleese was automatically returned. Ms Scallon was elected an MEP for Ireland West in the 1999 European election, but failed to retain her seat in 2004. She also ran in the Galway West constituency in the general election of 2002 but was not elected. As an MEP she campaigned strongly against the Nice Treaty and against the abortion referendum proposals advanced by Bertie Ahern’s administration in 2001. The electorate voted No in both referendums but in the second Nice referendum in 2002 a majority voted in favour. Maybe the mods might want to consider an Irish Presidential Election Thread?
I'll start the thread for your man off Dragons Den. Just give me a few minutes to find out what his name is.
She has got off to a good start, asked a simple question on Rte News of "Which Oireachtas members have her backing" and she refused to answer, don't know what the big secret is, for that reason there is no way I would vote for her.
She is a ****ing bore. Every time i listen to her is drives me to sleep. I would not vote for her at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rosemary_Scallon Be interesting to see if she gets a nomination depends on what happens in FF....I reckon she will draw some support if a candidate, whether its enough remains a big question...
Christ,that heat on the SF lads didnt last long...looks like her campaign lasted only a day! FF said they wont endorse any candidate.She didnt offer much anyway.
I don't think she wanted endorsement, just support for her nomination. The campaign hasn't started officially yet so plenty of time to heat them all up.
There would always be people to vote for her, she got 13.8% of the vote the last time she ran for President.