More drama has hit the IFA election road for its next President – just 24 hours after the deadline for nominations passed Derek Deane has announced that he had the necessary backing but inadvertently missed the deadline.
The Carlow Chairman has announced tonight that he received the backing of a fifth County Chairman at 17.15 yesterday – 15 minutes ahead of the deadline for nominations. He also said that the Chairman sent an email to IFA HQ giving his backing to Deane, but it was not received.
Deane is now appealing to the Executive Council of IFA to allow him run in the election, despite missing the 17.30 deadline yesterday (Wednesday).
He said that it is a technical issue that is stopping him being on the ballot paper and is now calling for an emergency meeting of the Executive Council to address the situation.
The Three Official IFA Candidates
Yesterday, the IFA National Returning Officer Jer Bergin confirmed that three nominations for the position of President of the Irish Farmers Association have been received by the deadline.
Henry Burns (Laois), Joe Healy (Galway), and Flor McCarthy (Kerry) will contest the election to be held in April.
Each of the candidates has the required number of nominations, which is their own County Executive and five other County Executives.
IFA Livestock Chairman Henry Burns was nominated by Laois, Wexford, Kildare, Offaly, Kilkenny and Wicklow.
IFA Farm Business Galway rep Joe Healy was nominated by Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.
IFA Rural Development Chairman Flor McCarthy was nominated by Kerry, Clare, Waterford, Tipperary South, Louth and Meath.