A vote of no confidence in the newly-elected national chairman of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) is to be proposed at a crunch meeting of the association's executive committee in Co Kildare tonight.

The Munster region, which met on Wednesday night, voted 12 to eight in favour of putting forward a proposal for a vote of no confidence in Brian Gormley, who was elected to the national chair only eight days ago. The proposal already has the backing of the Northern region, which agreed a similar motion at a regional meeting on Monday night.

The Munster region cites Brian Gormley's outspoken remarks against the Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) and his "past record during his previous term of office (1992-93) when he failed to present a set of accounts of the association to the members".

The proposal also states that Gormley "failed to ensure that these accounts were filed with the Companies Office".

The region is also calling for an independent inquiry, through a group nominated by the federation, to investigate the allegations put forward by the association's accountant, Mairead Divilly, who said at the first meeting of the new executive last week that a breach of the Employment Act had taken place within the SJAI headquarters.

As a result of Divilly's remarks - which followed a report by the finance committee in December that found "serious and continuing irregularities" - a former SJAI director was suspended from his temporary employment at the association's Dublin offices last week. The director general, Tony Kelly, was also asked to step down while the matter was being investigated.

A sub-committee, headed by Divilly, held a day-long inquiry on Wednesday, and interviewed all those involved, but failed to reach a conclusion.

The group, which includes two executive directors, Tom Dixon and Tony Hurley, as well as Munster committee member John Breen, met again last night to consider what final recommendations will be made in a report to be presented by Divilly at tonight's executive meeting.

Gormley, a Co Longford vet who had already served two terms as national chairman before his election last week, said last night that he would "accept the wishes of the majority of the executive" when the no-confidence motion is voted on tonight. "I'm not going to abandon the trust that people who elected me put in me last week," he said.

There has been no meeting of the Leinster region since last week's election and therefore no replacement has been made for Gormley since his elevation into the chair. This means that Gormley's own region has only four representatives, while the other regions all have a full complement of five.

But tonight's meeting comes after a gathering of the EFI directors this afternoon when the threat to suspend the SJAI from membership of the federation, in response to the controversy, will be put to the vote.

The identity of the six SJAI representatives on the federation has been kept firmly under wraps, but Gormley stated last night that the sextet would be informing the federation on the current state of affairs in the SJAI in a bid to stall the proceedings.