Boyle tipped to be Green Party chairman

Senator Dan Boyle is expected to be elected Green Party chairman when nominations for the key position close tomorrow.

Four other candidates were in the running for the post which was vacated when the outgoing office holder John Gormley succeeded Trevor Sargent as party leader last month.

The other hopefuls are TD Paul Gogarty, Cllr Bronwyn Maher, Dr John Barry and Dublin party worker Phil Kearney.

Ballots were posted out to voting party members on October 1.

The chairman is a key position within the party and is responsible for chairing meetings of the national convention and the management committee.

He or she also convenes meetings on electoral and party strategy.

Mr Boyle lost his Dail seat in May and later helped negotiate the programme for government with Fianna Fail. He was nominated to the Seanad by the Taoiseach.

Dublin Mid-West TD Mr Gogarty is frontbench spokesman for the Greens in the Dail.

Cllr Maher represents the Clontarf area of Dublin and received 1,891 first preferences in the Dublin North Central in May’s general election.

Mr Kearney ran unsuccessfully in Dublin’s north inner city for the Greens in the local elections in 2004.

Dr Barry is currently co-chair of the Northern Ireland Regional Council of the Green Party and believes he can offer a north-south perspective to the key party position.

All party members who joined six months previously and have paid membership for 2007 are entitled to vote.

Votes will be counted on a weighted basis with five points for every first vote, four for every second, three for every third, two for every fourth and one for every fifth vote.