The national returning officer for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Election 2023 has said that the addition of the option to post ballot papers back to IFA headquarters for the president and deputy president election has resulted in an increase in voter turnout.
Brian Rushe told Agriland that this was the first time that IFA members were offered a postal option to cast their vote, while members also had the option to cast their vote at the annual general meeting (AGM) of their local branch, if they preferred.
“We had a big uptake in ballots returned. We’ve almost 30,000 ballot envelopes returned today which is a big increase of almost 8,000 on the last election,” Rushe said.
Rushe said that due to the process being slightly longer than previous elections, it is unlikely that there will be a result by the end of today.
IFA Election 2023
The role of president of IFA is being contested by Co, Laois beef and sheep farmer, Francie Gorman and Limerick dairy farmer Martin Stapleton.
The deputy president role is being contested by beef farmer, Alice Doyle from Wexford and dairy farmer, Pat Murphy from Galway.
While a result might not be expected from the count centre today, Agriland’s straw poll of readers over the past 24 hours has indicated that the majority of people think Francie Gorman and Alice Doyle might take the top positions.
The counting of votes is also taking place for three IFA regional chair positions: Connacht, Munster and South Leinster.
James Gallagher from Leitrim and Brendan Golden from Mayo are running for regional chair in Connacht.
Mark Connors from Waterford and Conor O’Leary from Cork Central are contesting for Munster regional chair.
Tom Byrne from Wicklow, Pat Farrell from Kildare and Paul O’Brien from Kilkenny are battling it out for the South Leinster regional chair position.
Stay tuned to the Agriland app or social media channels throughout the day as we bring you the very latest updates from the IFA Election 2023 count centre.
Additional reporting by Francess McDonnell and Louise Hickey