Ms Mary Banotti's supporters are insisting she can win next Thursday's presidential election despite two weekend opinion polls showing Prof Mary McAleese with a convincing lead.
With just three days to go Prof McAleese's camp has been buoyed by the polls which show their candidate winning comfortably on the fourth count. The results of a Sunday Independent/IMS poll, published yesterday, indicate that Prof McAleese would win on the final count with 57 per cent of the votes compared to 43 per cent for Ms Banotti.
Ms Banotti's campaign director, Mr Phil Hogan, however, said last night that Fianna Fail's support was usually overstated in polls close to election day, and that it expected Ms McAleese to gain a significantly lower first preference vote than that shown in the polls.
An Irish Times/MRBI poll whose results were published on Saturday showed Ms McAleese with 56 per cent after the final count with Ms Banotti winning 44 per cent.
First preference voting intentions shown in the Irish Times/ MRBI poll were: Prof Mary McAleese 37 per cent; Ms Mary Banotti 29 per cent; Ms Adi Roche 8 per cent; Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon 8 per cent; Mr Derek Nally 6 per cent. Some 13 per cent of voters were undecided.
Mr Hogan maintained last night that as Ms Banotti's poll rating had risen consistently during the campaign, she could close the gap. ail candidate with 45 per cent yet he ended up with 39 per cent," said Mr Hogan.
Prof McAleese received an unexpected boost yesterday when the Ulster Unionist Party deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, dismissed suggestions that unionists regarded her as a Sinn Fein sympathiser. In an interview on RTE's This Week radio programme Mr Taylor said he never considered Prof McAleese to be a supporter of Sinn Fein and that he was surprised to see some members of the SDLP accusing her of being one.
While saying Prof McAleese was "an out-and-out . . . very, very green nationalist [who] promotes her Catholicism too much", he said she was a very able person with whom he had found it quite easy to work. Prof McAleese said yesterday she was pleased with Mr Taylor's remarks. Mr Taylor was the kind of man who respected people whose beliefs differed from his and he "dislikes sham", she maintained.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein ardcomhairle has decided not to endorse any candidate despite Mr Gerry Adams's statement a fortnight ago of his personal preference for Prof McAleese. The proposal not to endorse any candidate was made by Mr Adams himself, according to a Sinn Fein statement.
Speaking after a meeting of the party's ardcomhairle yesterday Mr Adams said the main issue raised by ardcomhairle members in regard to the presidential election "was the way in which the North and the peace process were being used in a negative and partitionist manner by some parties".
"There is also a need for a positive debate - a truly national debate - on all the issues which have been raised negatively in the election campaign. This debate which is essentially about how the people of this island view ourselves should continue beyond polling day."
Dana yesterday welcomed her rise of 1 per cent shown in the Irish Times/MRBI poll, and maintained her support would be higher than that shown in the poll. "Perhaps the fact that sections of the media did not portray me as a serious candidate until recent days meant that my supporters were reluctant to declare themselves to the pollsters," she said.
Mr Derek Nally said yesterday he would not enter a voting pact with any other candidate in order to encourage his voters to transfer to a particular candidate. "My only pact is with the people," he told a campaign rally in Waterford.
Meanwhile, a leading Presbyterian has praised Prof McAleese as someone who would genuinely like to build bridges and as "a person who is open to other people's religious and political views". Dr David Stevens, who is general secretary of the Irish Council of Churches, said he believed, however, that it would be very difficult for any Northern nationalist to build bridges to unionists.