Voters in Northern Ireland will not be able to vote in the Oct. 27 presidential election in the republic - even if they are Irish citizens.
But Martin McGuinness, who can't vote either but is running for the presidency, would like to see that change.
The Sinn Féin candidate has called for the vote in Irish presidential elections to be extended to Irish citizens living north of the border.
"The northern counties have as much interest in this election as anybody else even though they don't have the vote. That is a very important campaign which I think all of the parties here in the South need to consider in the context of the next presidential election after this one," McGuinness said at the outset of his month long bid to be the constitutional head of the republic.
