IFA election count tomorrow

The national count to elect the 15th president of the Irish Farmers Association will take place in the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin tomorrow.

As the 947 branches conclude their meetings and members have cast their votes to elect a new president and a new deputy president, the counting of votes will begin on Tuesday at 9am. The nine county executives in Munster have also met to elect a new regional chairman.

Jer Bergin, IFA National Returning Officer, said he was very satisfied with the turnout reported around the country, given the timing of the election.

He said: “There are a number of factors affecting turnout: the shorter-than-usual lead-in to voting, coinciding with the busiest time on farms in a late spring, which has impacted on work on farms. Given all this, our voluntary officers who were charged with acting as branch returning officers have done an exceptional job in overseeing the voting process”.

The new president to succeed Slane's Eddie Downey will take up office immediately on election. The IFA Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 27th April.

Three candidates are running in the presidential race. They are Henry Burns (Laois), Joe Healy (Galway) and Flor McCarthy (Kerry).

There are three candidates for deputy president: Pat Farrell (Kildare), Richard Kennedy (Limerick) and Nigel Renaghan (Monaghan).

Two candidates are running for the position of Munster regional chairman. They are John Coughlan (Cork North) and John O’Brien (Cork Central).

The results will be input on the IFA National Count computer system and relayed on monitors in the count centre.The inputting process includes independent cross-checking of the recording of results.

Live updated results will be available online throughout the day at www.ifa.ie and on Twitter by following @IFAMedia or #IFAElection.