Ireland votes 'no' : to EU treaty critics

(DUBLIN) - The leader of the group which spearheaded Irish opposition to the EU's Lisbon treaty conceded defeat Monday in his bid to win election in European polls, as his movement won only one seat across the bloc.

Declan Ganley of Libertas, which led the "no" campaign that saw a shock 53.4 percent rejection of the treaty in a referendum last June, had trailed in fourth in the North West constituency with 13.7 percent first preference votes.

"I don't have any regrets," Ganley said. "I think it was the right thing to do, to go and seek a mandate. I think it was appropriate.

"The people of Ireland North West, I applied to them for a job. I didn't pass the application."

He also said he would not lead the opposition to a second referendum expected by October. The vote will be closely watched in Brussels as the reform treaty must be approved by all 27 EU member states.

"I will not be involved in the second Lisbon campaign, I've said that upfront. I've got to get back to work," Ganley told the Irish Times, adding: "As I said, I can take no for an answer."

The millionaire businessman said the question of whether Libertas would continue without him was a subject for internal discussion.

Libertas candidates were hammered in two other Irish constituencies. The party got 3.3 percent of the first preference vote in Dublin and 4.3 percent in the East constituency.

Meanwhile, the party's headquarters in Brussels said that, of 532 candidates standing across Europe in last week's European Parliament polls, only one -- veteran eurosceptic Philippe de Villiers in France -- had been elected.

"It is disappointing. But you have to understand that it is a very difficult project," said a spokesman, adding that Libertas was a relatively new political group.

Ganley had hoped to pick up sufficient transfers from other candidates under the proportional representation voting system to get the third seat in the North West of Ireland.

But his first preference vote was 10,000 behind the three leading candidates and a re-check he had requested cost him votes instead of boosting his chances.

Libertas requested that bundles of ballots be rechecked amid concerns that up to 10,000 of Ganley's votes might have been wrongly allocated. In the event, officials found he had in fact been awarded 3,000 extra votes in error.

Ganley's first count vote was adjusted down from 70,638 to 67,638.