There is yet another twist in the saga surrounding the Seanad by-election.

Fine Gael has been accused of deliberately trying to supervise a private ballot for vote.

It has emerged the party has asked its TDs and Senators to cast their votes in the presence of party officials.

Fine Gael says it is trying to guarantee a high turnout - but it has been accused of trying to make sure everybody votes for its under-fire candidate John McNulty, whose credentials for the job are in question.

Fianna Fáil's Colm Keaveney campaigned against similar plans when he was in Labour, and says Fine Gael is making it impossible to have a secret ballot.

It comes after organisers of the controversial by-election rejected calls to expel Mr McNulty from the race.

The returning officers say Mr McNulty will continue to be a candidate, even though he is no longer a director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).

Ballot papers are being issued, and now it is up to 164 TDs and 59 Senators to decide the future of the seat.

Sinn Féin is calling on the Arts Minister to make a statement to the Dáil clarifying the appointment of Mr McNulty to the IMMA board.

Mr McNulty resigned from the museum's board yesterday - just 13 days after his appointment.

Independent Seanad candidate, Gerard Craughwell, said last night that Mr McNulty should be eliminated from the election, as the nomination form gave his membership of board of IMMA as one of the reasons he was eligible to run on the cultural panel.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan says she knows nothing about Fine Gael's candidate, other than what she has read in the papers.

Ms O'Sullivan admits that the furore over Mr McNulty's appointment to a State board proves that all public positions need to be fully advertised in future.

She says the whole situation has been terribly handled.

Originally published at 9:13am