8.30pm: the end

Thanks for tuning into the Irish Farmers Journal's live blog of the 2023 IFA presidential, deputy presidential and regional chair election.

If you missed out on any of the action from Castleknock over the course of the day, check out www.farmersjournal.ie and see this week’s paper for more in-depth coverage and interviews from the election.

8.20pm: south Leinster chair

Paul O’Brien received 1,422 votes, beating Pat Farrell (477) and Thomas Byrne (396) in the race for south Leinster chair.

This concludes the last count of the 2023 IFA election.

7.58pm: Connacht chair

Brendan Golden has beaten James Gallagher by 720 votes to 651 in the IFA Connacht chair race.

Golden garnered 53% of the votes compared with Galagher's 47%.

7.55pm: Munster chair

Conor O'Leary has been elected Munster IFA chair. He received 1,823 votes to Mark Connors' 1,164.

7.35pm: Doyle on her win

News correspondent Anne O’Donoghue caught up with incoming deputy president Alice Doyle after her win.

7.30pm: Gorman vows to deliver

Incoming IFA president Francie Gorman has vowed to deliver for Irish farmers.

He caught up with Pat O’Toole after he was elected.

5.50pm: turnout up

Turnout is up to almost 2013 levels at this year’s IFA election.

Around 20,000 ballots were sent in via the new postal system, with over 9,000 sent in via the traditional branch system. A total of 74,346 members were eligible to vote in this election.

In terms of turnout in previous elections, here’s a look back at the last three elections:

  • In 2013, there were 80,000 IFA members who were eligible to vote in the election. A total of 31,726 votes were cast in this election. Eddie Downey was elected president this year.
  • In 2016, some 75,501 IFA members were eligible to vote and, of this number, over 28,000 turned out to vote. Joe Healy was elected president.
  • In 2019, 72,000 IFA members were eligible to vote in the election, which saw Tim Cullinan elected IFA president. Turnout in 2019 stood at 22,885.

    • 5.40pm: regional count to begin

    The count for the three regional chair positions - Connacht, Munster and south Leinster - in the IFA will kick off around 7.30pm.

    Each candidate has been nominated by their own county executive to run.

    James Gallagher from Leitrim and Brendan Golden from Mayo will run for regional chair in Connacht.

    Mark Connors from Waterford and Conor O’Leary from Cork central have been nominated to run in Munster. A third candidate, Francis Foley from Kerry, had been nominated to run, but he withdrew from the race.

    Tom Byrne from Wicklow, Pat Farrell from Kildare and Paul O’Brien from Kilkenny will contest the south Leinster regional chair position.

    5.15pm: Gorman elected president

    The next president of the IFA will be Laois man Francie Gorman.

    There was a total valid poll of 29,909, with Gorman taking home 16,699 votes to Martin Stapleton's 13,210.

    5.05pm: new deputy president

    New IFA deputy president Alice Doyle.

    The next deputy president of the IFA will be Wexford's Alice Doyle.

    A total of 29,598 total ballots were cast in the deputy president election, with a valid poll of 29,470.

    Alice Doyle received 16,502 votes to Pat Murphy's 12,968.

    4.40pm: new president to be announced

    The next president of the IFA is set to be announced in a few moments.

    The IFA has suspended showing the tallies for each of the candidates on the big screens here in Castleknock.

    The new president and deputy will be announced, followed by a break. Then, counting for the regional chair positions will begin.

    4.25pm: home stretch

    We are on the home stretch in the presidential and deputy presidential elections, with 88% of branches counted.

    Tipperary South fell to Martin Stapleton and Alice Doyle in the presidential and deputy presidential contests, respectively.

    Roscommon went to Francie Gorman and Pat Murphy in the presidential and deputy presidential elections, respectively.

    Louth fell to Gorman and Doyle.

    3.45pm: Over 80% of votes counted

    A total of 82% of votes have been counted in the presidential election.

    Gorman is ahead on 12,763, while Stapleton is on 11,110. Stapleton has won the vote in Clare, Cork north, Cork west and Waterford.

    3.05pm: Gorman takes Cavan and Monaghan

    Francie Gorman has won the vote in the Cavan, Monaghan and Kildare west Wicklow county executives.

    In Cavan, Gorman received 398 votes, while Stapleton received 321.

    In Monaghan, Gorman received 415 of the 629 valid votes. Stapleton received 214.

    In Kildare west Wicklow, there were 809 valid votes. Gorman took the majority of votes here securing 725 votes to Stapleton’s 84.

    For the deputy presidential race there were 722 valid votes. Pat Murphy received 423 votes to Alice Doyle’s 299.

    Of the 616 valid votes in Monaghan, Doyle took 350 votes here to Murphy’s 266.

    In Kildare west Wicklow, of the 800 valid votes, Doyle received 658 to Murphy’s 142.

    3pm: Gorman and Doyle break 10,000

    Presidential candidate Francie Gorman and deputy presidential candidate Alice Doyle have both broken the 10,000-vote mark.

    Gorman is presently leading the presidential race with 10,342 votes to Martin Stapleton’s 8,558 votes.

    Doyle is currently on 10,017 in the deputy contest. Pat Murphy is now on 8,638 votes.

    Counting is progressing well with 65% of the vote counted.

    2.30pm: deputy president count update

    2.00pm: 60% of the vote counted

    Things have started to motor here in Castleknock, with 60% of the votes in the presidential and deputy presidential election counted.

    The 17th president of the IFA will be elected this evening.

    As it stands, 16,940 votes have been counted in the presidential election. Gorman has 9,139 votes to Stapleton’s 7,801.

    Of the counties where counting has completed, Gorman has topped the poll in Sligo, Longford, Dublin and Carlow.

    Stapleton has topped the poll in Waterford.

    Of the 16,655 votes counted in the deputy presidential race, Doyle has received 9,084 votes while Murphy has received 7,571 votes.

    Doyle has won counties Longford, Waterford, Dublin and Carlow. Murphy has won Sligo.

    12:50pm: counting to finish today

    The intention is to get all counting in the presidential, deputy presidential and regional elections finished today, IFA director general Damian McDonald has said.

    Given counters are making “great progress”, McDonald said the plan is to finish counting in the presidential and deputy contests and then begin counting for the regional chair positions this evening.

    12.35pm: provisional results for two counties

    IFA national returning officer Brian Rushe has announced the provisional results for two counties in the presidential elections - Sligo and Waterford.

    In Sligo, the total valid poll was 406 votes.

    Gorman received 279 of these votes, while Stapleton received 127.

    In the deputy presidential race, out of 406 valid votes, Murphy received 288 votes to Doyle's 188.

    In Waterford, there were 638 ballots cast and four were spoiled, leaving 634 valid, Rushe said.

    Stapleton received 346 of these votes, with Gorman receiving 288.

    In the deputy race, there were 636 votes, five of which were spoiled, leaving a valid poll of 631 votes.

    Doyle won 462 votes in the county, to Murphy 169.

    12.20pm: 40% of the vote counted

    A total of 40% of votes in the presidential election have been counted.

    Gorman has 6,122 votes, while Stapleton has 5,167.

    Francie Gorman has won the most votes in Sligo, as has Pat Murphy in the deputy race.

    It is a tighter contest for deputy, with Alice Doyle on 5,961 votes and Murphy on 5,120.

    12.10pm: five things we've learned from this morning's count

    1 - a high turnout

    Hopes that the new voting system would boost turnout have been vindicated, with almost 30,000 votes cast in the IFA presidential election. This represents an increase of 7,000 on the 22,898 cast in the 2019 election.

    2 - a fast count

    The IFA election has traditionally been decided by a single day's counting. There was a possibility that the count would run into a second day this time, because of the requirement to scan every vote's barcode to verify it. However, the count is steaming ahead and almost one third of votes have now been counted. The likelihood is that we will have a result in time for the evening news at 9pm, unless the contests are so tight we need a recount or check of votes.

    3 - two tight races

    That might yet happen, as we currently have two tight races in progress. The presidential contest has Francie Gorman in the lead by 5,413 votes to Martin Stapleton's 4,617, but that's far from unassailable. The deputy race is even tighter, with Alice Doyle on 5,236 votes to Pat Murphy's 4,622.

    4 - big counties matter

    Martin Stapleton's Limerick has a bigger vote than Francie Gorman's Laois. The same is true of Pat Murphy's Galway, the biggest IFA county in the country (as opposed to actual county, bearing in mind that Cork is divided into three executives and Tipperary two). Galway and Limerick will continue to deliver votes after counting in Laois and Alice Doyle's Wexford is completed, closing the gap in each race.

    5 - Kilkenny may be decisive

    While counting is under way in most counties, a handful have yet to commence - Dublin, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Louth, Wicklow and Kilkenny. Of these, Kilkenny is likely to be the most significant. The word is there was a high turnout there and with Gorman and Doyle local to Kilkenny, they will expect to do well there. That could prove to be decisive in both elections. Stapleton and Murphy will have to hope that sector will overcome geography and that dairy farmers in Kilkenny vote strongly for the dairy candidates. We have seen that happen around the country, with Gorman doing quite well in Clare and west Cork, presumably getting support from drystock farmers.

    11.25am: campaign manager view

    Francie Gorman’s campaign manager Pat Hennessy speaks to the Irish Farmers Journal’s Pat O’Toole at the count.

    11am: nearly 30% of branches counted

    Counting is progressing at pace in Castleknock this morning.

    Nearly 30% of branches have been counted.

    Francie Gorman is ahead at the moment with 4,481 votes to Martin Stapleton’s 3,710.

    Alice Doyle is in front in the deputy presidential election on 4,235 votes to Pat Murphy’s 3,732.

    10.50am: nearly 15% of votes counted

    Irish Farmers Journal political correspondent Pat O’Toole speaks to IFA national returning officer Brian Rushe on turnout.

    10.30am: deputy candidates

    There are also two candidates in the running for deputy president of the IFA:

  • Alice Doyle from Wexford.
  • Pat Murphy from Galway.

    • Doyle was nominated by Wexford IFA and the following county chairs: Jim Mulhall (Kilkenny), Conor O’Leary (Cork Central), Baden Powell (Tipperary north), Joe Sweeney (Donegal) and Dermot Ward (Meath).

    Murphy was nominated by Galway IFA and the following county chairs: Patrick Walsh (Offaly), Donal O’Donovan (Cork west), Thomas Lane (Clare), Patrick McCormack (Monaghan) and Pat Leonard (Roscommon).

    10.25am: meet the candidates

    10.15am: almost 30,000 votes cast

    Almost 30,000 votes have been cast in this year’s IFA presidential elections, a big jump on 2019 turnout. In total, 29,800 votes were cast in the election.

    Counting has been completed for 157 branches (16%).

    Some 2,422 votes have gone to Francie Gorman, with 2,075 going to Martin Stapleton at this early stage.

    9.25am: the candidates

    Two candidates are in the running for the presidency of IFA:

  • Francie Gorman from Laois.
  • Martin Stapleton from Limerick.

    • Gorman was nominated by Laois IFA and the following county chairs: Maurice Brady (Cavan), Jim Mulhall (Kilkenny), Pat Walsh (Offaly), Stephen Canavan (Galway) and Baden Powell (north Tipperary).

    Stapleton was nominated by Limerick IFA and the following county chairs: Thomas Byrne (Wicklow), Conor O’Leary (Cork central), Pat Leonard (Roscommon), Donal O’Donovan (Cork west) and John Carroll (Louth).

    9.00am: welcome

    Good morning and welcome to the Irish Farmers Journal's live blog of the 2023 IFA presidential election count.

    Amy Forde, Pat O’Toole, Anne O’Donoghue and Rachel Donovan will keep you up to date with the latest news from the count as the day - and night - goes on.

    The counting of ballots kicked off at 8am this morning here at the Castleknock Hotel and turnout for this election is expected to surpass the election of 2019.

    Over 21,000 postal ballots had been received as of Monday afternoon by the IFA.