The Sligo IFA County Executive is to meet on Monday next, July 4, in order to vote for the next Connacht IFA Chairman after the meeting was postponed last week following the death of County Secretary, Marie Kenny.
Following the vote, there will be a count on Tuesday, July 5, where Connacht IFA will appoint a Chairman for the region after several months of deadlock.
Eddie Davitt from Co. Sligo and Padraic Joyce from Co. Mayo are the two candidates vying for the position.
Connacht had been in a stalemate for several months over the position of Regional Chairman as one candidate was nominated from each county for the top job meaning no county could endorse another to go forward for the position.
Tom Turley, the incumbent, from Galway, John O’Beirne from Roscommon and Des McHugh from Co. Leitrim had all been nominated by their own County Executives – putting the region in deadlock.
Earlier this year, Sligo IFA submitted a possible solution to the Connacht IFA deadlock to Executive Council
In the proposal, Sligo requested a rotating Connacht Chairman every two years in the region as a resolution to the stalemate.
However, a source told Agriland that the IFA was “afraid that adopting the proposal could open a can of worms” – in that if that was the case for Connacht then every county could then nominate a candidate for IFA President.
Following several failed nomination processes in the region, in May the IFA Executive Council decided by an overwhelming majority on a process whereby the nominations of the five candidates by their own County Executives would stand.
In order to appoint a representative for the region, each County Chairman voted in May to endorse one of the other candidates from outside their County Executive by voting 1, 2, 3 in a secret ballot. Davitt and Joyce were the two candidates that emerged from the voting to contest the position.