Every IFA vote will count
BETTER farm incomes through setting minimum prices and reducing the cost of inputs, promoting diversification, and capitalising on biofuels are some of the commitments on offer to farmers in return for their votes in the IFA presidential election.
Voting by members in 945 branches will take place in the first two weeks of December, followed by the election count and announcement of the result in Dublin on December 20.
In the new voting system, it is expected that the candidates will share up to 2,000 first preference votes.
Each branch will be worth between one and four votes to the candidate getting the majority branch vote.
There will be one vote if at least eight branch members take part in the vote, two for 26 members, three for 51 members, and four votes from branches where more than 75 farmers vote.
Candidates and their election teams are canvassing farm to farm from Donegal to West Cork, and Wexford to Mayo, urging members to come out and vote.
While, on the surface, the election appears to lack some of the razzmatazz and hype of previous years, the hard campaigning on the ground is reported to be more intensive than ever, because of the greater necessity to get the maximum number of farmers to the polls, thus increasing the ballot.
How many IFA members vote could have a vital influence in the election, with numerically stronger branches having a three or four fold greater influence on the election than previously, when their verdict was worth just one vote. The new voting system has also made forecasting of the outcome much more difficult, but it is expected that the overall poll will be more than doubled from previous elections, and weighted more towards Munster, which has a higher number of larger branches.
