Libertas out of the game in Irish Elections according Reuters

Irish anti-treaty group seen facing EU vote defeat

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Libertas party is unlikely to win election to the European Parliament in Ireland next week, an opinion poll showed, in what would be a major setback for its campaign against the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty.

Libertas, which now styles itself a "pan-European" party with candidates across the EU, was one of the leading groups whose campaign helped defeat the Lisbon treaty in an Irish referendum last June.

Ireland is planning a second vote on the treaty in the autumn subject to concessions in key policy areas but Libertas leader Declan Ganley has said he would not be at the forefront of a new campaign unless he won a seat in the European Parliament.

Saturday's Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll showed Ganley's support in Ireland's North West constituency remained steady at 9 percent, with other Irish Libertas candidates even further from landing a job in Brussels on June 5.

The nationalist Sinn Fein party's MEP Mary Lou McDonald, another leading anti-Lisbon treaty campaigner, was in a close race to defend her seat in the Dublin constituency, the poll said.

Ireland will also elect local councillors and two members of the national parliament on June 5, with support for governing party Fianna Fail at a record low of 20 percent according to an earlier instalment of the Irish Times poll on Friday.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen's party is set to lose the two parliamentary by-elections in Dublin and perform dismally in municipalities as it trails in third place nationally behind opposition Fine Gael and Labour -- all three pro-Lisbon parties.

However due to the popularity of some individual candidates and a system allowing the transfer of votes from weaker ones, Fianna Fail was only in danger of losing one of its four members of the European Parliament, Saturday's poll said.

TNS mrbi conducted the European election poll from Tuesday to Thursday through face-to-face interviews with 500 people in each of Ireland's four euro constituencies.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by Charles Dick)