SENATOR FIONA O'Malley or Senator Ciarán Cannon will be named as the new leader of the Progressive Democrats this morning. The count to decide Mary Harney's successor began at 7pm last night. The result was due to be announced early this morning. Harry McGee, Political Staff, reports.
While the identity of the new leader will be known at that time, the person chosen, either Mr Cannon or Ms O'Malley, will give his or her first press conference at 9.30 this morning in a hotel in Dublin city centre.
The event will be attended by Ms Harney, the party's other Dáil deputy Noel Grealish, as well as the losing candidate.
The election process to select a new leader was originally planned to conclude yesterday but was deferred 24 hours as a mark of respect for the State funeral of the late president, Dr Patrick Hillery.
Under the rules of the party, three separate colleges decide the outcome of the leadership contest.
The first is the party's Oireachtas members which has a voting weight of 40 per cent. However, the vote from the two TDs and two Senators is expected to divide equally between both candidates, with Mr Grealish voting for Mr Cannon and Ms Harney voting for Ms O'Malley.
The party's councillors and members of the National Executive account for a further 30 per cent of the voting weight.
While Mr Cannon was expected to be ahead with this group, other party sources said that Ms O'Malley's interjection in the debate surrounding Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's position may have swayed the balance back a little in her favour.
The remaining 30 per cent of the vote will be decided by the membership of the party.
The counting, which started off last night, began with the opening of the votes cast by members; then moved onto the votes cast by councillors and the executive.
The votes cast by the four Oireachtas members were to be the last that were counted.
Both candidates have been campaigning since the middle of February.
A total of 3,900 members were entitled to vote, but no figures were available last night as to how many members had actually voted in the postal ballot.
According to senior party figures, the outcome of the election will probably be decided by the membership.
They added it was not possible to predict with any confidence which of the two candidates would prevail, although Mr Cannon is considered to be the slight favourite.
Senator O'Malley is the daughter of party founder and former leader Des O'Malley and was a TD for Dún Laoghaire until losing her seat in last year's election.
Senator Cannon won a council seat for the party in 2004 and was a losing candidate in Galway East in the 2007 elections.
Ms O'Malley has attracted support in Dublin and in the Limerick region, with Mr Cannon winning the bulk of his support in both Galway constituencies and from other rural areas, including Laois-Offaly, the one-time stronghold of former TD Tom Parlon.