IFA reforms structures and proceduresBy Ray Ryan
Published February 3rd 2005 in Irish Examiner
A plan to restructure the 85,000 member farmers’ body, now in its golden jubilee year, were drawn up by Michael Dowling, former secretary general of the Department of Agriculture and Food. Macra na Feirme president Thomas Honner said he was pleased the IFA had dropped its proposal to establish a national young farmer committee and that the Macra president would retain a full voting seat on the IFA national council. A new executive council, which has been reduced in numbers from the current 70 to 52, will be the IFA’s governing body. The position of IFA deputy president is to remain and county executives will be represented at council level by its chairman. The county vice-chairman will be the deputy representative on the council, when the county chairman does not attend. A new system of weighted branch voting using proportional representation will apply in IFA national elections for the positions of president, deputy president and regional vice president. National committees will be streamlined and refocused to reflect new priorities including environment, farm business, services and inputs, farm family and social affairs - with professional support. Professional staff resources will be deployed to new areas including Oireachtas liaison, consumer food and multiple retail liaison.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.