Sligo’s Eddie Davitt and Mayo’s Padraic Joyce have been nominated to run for the position of IFA Connacht Chairman, following a secret ballot vote by the region’s five County Chairmen last Friday.
Both Davitt and Joyce are former County Chairmen for their respective counties.
The count of the ballots was conducted by IFA’s legal advisor James Staines and the result reported to the IFA National Returning Officer Jer Bergin.
IFA has announced that voting in the election of the new Connacht Chairman will take place at five county executive meetings to be held in the Connacht counties over two weeks in mid-June.
At the IFA AGM, it was decided in principle that for this election only the weighted vote from the recent Presidential election will not apply and Council will meet in June in advance of the county executive meetings to introduce this provision.
Connacht had been in deadlock 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.
Ahead of last Friday’s vote, no candidate has met the previous criteria for the position and no candidate was willing to pull out of the race and give their county signature to another.
In order to appoint a representative for the region, last Friday each County Chairman voted to endorse one of the other candidates from outside their County Executive by voting 1, 2, 3 in a secret ballot.
The other three candidates were the incumbent Tom Turley (Galway), John O’Beirne (Roscommon) and Des McHugh (Leitrim).