The claim against the retired Dublin city and county manager has been made by Tomas Mac Giolla, former Workers' Party president, who has written to the planning tribunal expressing his concern about Lawlor's victory. Lawlor, a Fianna Fail candidate, defeated Mac Giolla by 50 votes on the final count in Dublin West in the 1992 general election.

Mac Giolla told the Sunday Tribune that a well-known Fianna Fail figure confirmed the manipulation. He said this person told him, "you know that Liam Lawlor did a job on you." Mac Giolla, who was a TD for Dublin West for a decade until 1992, claims that, as a count supervisor, Redmond would have had access to ballot papers.

"On the final count I was 300 votes ahead of Lawlor. Old Brian Lenihan had a surplus.

Everyone including Fianna Fail people said that because of the dispute in Fianna Fail [between Lenihan and Lawlor] very little of Lenihan's surplus would go to Lawlor. But when the result was announced Lawlor beat me for the final seat by 50 votes."

After initially querying the result, Mac Giolla then accepted the outcome. "That was the end of the story as far as I was concerned when instead I should have been saying, 'Shut down the boxes, close the doors and let the gardai take control here', " Mac Giolla said.

"I was told afterwards that George Redmond was a supervisor. And as a supervisor he would have access to bundles of votes. I have no doubt about what was done."

The Redmond-Lawlor action was known about in senior Fianna Fail circles, according to what a named party figure told Mac Giolla. "I took it seriously after that conversation and I wrote to the planning tribunal, " he said.

Labour's Joan Burton, who topped the poll in 1992, said she was aware of the allegations. "There had been a chat about that from time to time and George Redmond's presence at the count was noted. But I would say he would have been surrounded by officials of the highest reputation."

Redmond and Lawlor have been linked to planning controversies under investigation by the Mahon tribunal.