Candidates 'confident' of FG vote

The three remaining candidates in the race to become the Fine Gael party candidate in the presidential election have stated their confidence ahead of tomorrow's party selection convention in Dublin.

MEPs Gay Mitchell and Mairéad McGuinness and former European Parliament president Pat Cox, who recently joined the party, remain in the race following the withdrawal yesterday of former minister of state Avril Doyle.

Mr Mitchell would not to be drawn on reports of an internal Fine Gael poll that put Pat Cox and Ms McGuinness at 22 per cent each with Gay Mitchell trailing behind on 14 per cent.

"We'll make a democratic decision and I have a very good idea what the result will be tomorrow. That's the poll were running on right now. I don't want to be cocky but I am relatively at ease with what I think will be the outcome and I am quietly confident", Mr Mitchell told RTÉ's News at One.

Mr Cox, who only joined the Fine Gael party last month, said his membership "is not an issue anymore".

“There is an extraordinary desire at every level of this party to take the Áras for the first time and to twin the presidency. Tomorrow the party owns the choice and the day after Muintir na hEireann owns the choice and I think I am best placed to win it.”

Mairéad McGuinness said her campaign was "going well" and said she believed she would be selected at tomorrow's meeting.

"My campaign was built from the ground up. I have worked extremely hard at all levels of the organisation to convince them that I am the candidate to win the presidency for Fine Gael."

"An that message, I think is ringing home with people."

Ms McGuinness said that based on her work to-date that she believed she "would come through tomorrow".

Earlier, Fine Gael deputy national director of elections Frank Flannery said party political affiliation will not be a primary factor when the country votes to elect the next President.

"I firmly believe the public views the presidency as a national office; they don't see it as the property of a party," Mr Flannery said this morning.

While party political support "will be an advantage", Mr Flannery said the "old-style core vote" - which he described as "quite small" - will not win the election for anybody.

Instead, Mr Flannery said the public will judge the candidate on personality and capability.

"Do they see that person as being presidential, do they see them as being a worthy successor of the excellent presidents we have had, and, can they do for Ireland the job that its people want done. That's what they will be looking at," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

The remaining contenders will address more than 600 members of the electoral college - including Oireachtas members, MEPs, councillors and members of the Fine Gael executive council - at tomorrow afternoon's convention at the Regency Hotel in north Dublin.

The party will operate PR-STV method in the election process, and the final result is expected by about 5.30pm.