Brian Rushe has been elected as the next deputy president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), and will succeed outgoing deputy president Richard Kennedy.
Rushe was elected following the counting of votes in the association’s presidential and deputy presidential elections. The count took place yesterday, Tuesday, December 17, at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin.
The announcement of the deputy presidential election was delayed until early on Wednesday morning, just after midnight on Tuesday, due to a recount.
The results of the first count were 11,374 votes for Rushe, with Cooney not far behind, at 11,338.
Following the recount – and some unclear confusion over the opening of query envelopes, Rushe was announced as the winner at around 1:40am on Wednesday morning.
The final vote, after the recount, stood at 11,379 for Rushe, with Cooney on 11,345 – a margin of victory for Rushe of 34 votes.
The count followed on from the voting procedure, which took place at IFA meetings throughout the country from November 25 to last Friday, December 13.
Rushe is currently the IFA chairman for Co. Kildare. He is from a dairy farming background.
His opponent, Co. Cavan native Cooney, is the current chairperson of the IFA’s Environment Committee.
The recount was also delayed as a result of the second count for the election of IFA president.
That ballot saw Co. Tipperary’s Tim Cullinan (current national treasurer) come out on top, beating out competition from Angus Woods (current national livestock chairperson) and John Coughlan (current Munster regional chairperson).
Cullinan was announced as the winner of the election earlier on Tuesday evening.