McDowell elected President of Progressive Democrats

The Government’s Attorney General, Michael McDowell, has been elected to the newly created post of party president of the Progressive Democrat party.

The new post was decided on at the party’s national conference in Limerick today and it had been widely speculated that McDowell would be nominated to the post.

Mr McDowell has also announced that he is to run for the PD’s in the upcoming general election in the Dublin Southeast constituency.

After accepting the post Mr McDowell said that he hoped to act in the role of a chief executive for the party and he told the conference how one of his aims was to have a PD candidate in every constituency in the country as the party continues to expand.

Earlier, Mr McDowell gave a speech to the conference that heavily attacked the policies of both Sinn Fein and the Labour Party as the PD's begin their build up to this year’s general election, which the party intends to contest as an independent party despite its partnership with Fianna Fail.