Fine Gael members to be asked to submit questions to candidates

Fine Gael members are to be asked to submit questions that will be put to Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar and Minister for Housing Simon Coveney at special leadership debates next week.

The Fine Gael executive council on Thursday night signed off on the ground rules of the leadership campaign at the end of its first full day.

[ FG leadership tracker: Track the contest and check who your local TD, Senator, MEP and councillor is supporting ]

The executive council set a deadline of this Saturday evening for close of nominations for the contest, although there will almost certainly only be two candidates.

Mr Coveney submitted his nomination papers on Thursday, and Mr Varadkar is expected to do so on Saturday.

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There will be four debates for Fine Gael members around the country, beginning next Thursday. They will be held in Dublin, Carlow Institute of Technology, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, and Cork city in that order.

The debates will be run off over four consecutive days between Thursday, May 25th, and Sunday, May 28th.

The four hustings will see the two candidates go head to head in town hall-style debates, and a question-and- answer session will be moderated by an independent moderator, understood to be a journalist.

Returning officer

It is understood that Martin Heydon, the chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, and Gerry O'Connell, a Fine Gael official who has been appointed returning officer for the election, will assist in organising the debates.

Party members are to be written to by Fine Gael headquarters requesting that they submit questions to be taken at the hustings. A selection will be put to Mr Coveney and Mr Varadkar on the night.

Voting in the election for the 21,000 rank-and-file Fine Gael members who have a vote will begin the day after the final husting. Councillors will also vote at the 28 polling stations that will be open between Monday, May 29th, and Thursday, June 1st. There will also be a polling station in Brussels for Fine Gael members working in the European Union institutions.

The party has decided to hold the voting in the evening to facilitate party members, and polling stations will be open between 4pm and 9pm. The polling stations will be supervised by party officials, and each candidate will also be entitled to have a representative on site.

Electoral college

The final act of the election will be a vote of the parliamentary party on Friday, June 2nd, followed by the counting of all ballots. The parliamentary party will be the most important vote since TDs, Senators and MEPs command 65 per cent of the vote in the electoral college that will choose the new leader.

Councillors have 10 per cent of the vote, and party members who were registered as members in 2016 and 2017 get 25 per cent.

The count will be open to the media, and it is hoped that the new leader will be announced that evening, with a press conference scheduled to take place.