Nominations to fill the post of president of the 20,000-strong Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) close tomorrow. Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
The organisation, crippled earlier this year by a strike by staff members at its Limerick city headquarters, will elect a new president to replace Pat O'Rourke, who retires at the end of the year.
Unlike the Irish Farmers Association, ICMSA members elect their president through their national council, which is made up of 83 representatives from the various counties in the State.
Two men are currently canvassing for the post, Jackie Cahill, the deputy president of the organisation, from Thurles, and Dominic Cronin from Boherbue, Cork, who heads up the organisation's dairy committee.
It emerged at the weekend that there may be a third candidate - Joe Fitzgerald, from Killagh, in east Cork - and that could throw all the predictions out of shape.
The declaration of a second candidate from Cork, which would split the vote there, would be bad news for Mr Cronin. He was in a strong position to win the election with the backing of most of the counties north of Tipperary and a unified Cork county vote.
However, the splitting of the Cork vote, if Mr Fitzgerald declares, would place Mr Cahill to the front of the election race.
He has had a troubled relationship with the outgoing Mr O'Rourke, in a year which saw the offices closed down and picketed for over nine weeks. On Friday, the organisation holds its first agm since the dispute.
Mr O'Rourke's name is being mentioned as a possible candidate in the next general election.