The businessman previously ran but his bid was derailed by talk of “brown envelopes”.
RTÉ have reported that businessman Seán Gallagher is “actively considering” a second bid at becoming President of Ireland.
Mr Gallagher previously contested the 2011 Presidential Election where he came second behind Michael D Higgins with a 28.5% share of the vote, some 200,000 first preference votes behind President Higgins.
He’s expected to announce his intentions to contest the autumn election within the next fortnight. The domain name www.seangallagher2018.com was also registered last Wednesday at 13.36pm.
As you may remember, the main topic of conversation during the final presidential debate of 2011 – held on RTÉ’s Frontline with Pat Kenny – was whether or not Mr Gallagher had received a ‘brown-paper envelope’ to the tune of €5,000 back in 2008.
During this debate, the Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness stated that a businessman claimed Mr Gallagher had personally visited his home to collect “a donation” on behalf of Fianna Fáil following the fundraiser.
During the programme, Pat Kenny addressed Gallagher and said that the “Martin McGuinness for President” Twitter account had tweeted “Sinn Féin are saying they are going to produce the man who gave you the cheque for five grand”. This Twitter account was a fake.
Mr Gallagher repeatedly denied the allegations saying they were “not true”.
In 2013, Mr Gallagher began legal proceedings against RTÉ, seeking a declaration that the Frontline programme was deliberately and unfairly edited, presented and directed. Last December, RTÉ apologised to Mr. Gallagher and paid him “substantial damages” in a settlement over the tweet that was read out during the debate.
With regards to the 2018 Presidential Election, if he’s considering another bid, Mr Gallagher would need to secure the support of four local authorities in order to enter the race.
As things stand, President Higgins is attempting to secure a second term. Gavin Duffy, Joan Freeman and Kevin Sharkey have also launched their campaigns.
Main Image via – Sean Gallagher (Facebook)
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