THE RESULT OF The Green Party leadership contest is due later today after voting closed yesterday evening. 

We should know later this evening f incumbent leader Eamon Ryan has secured enough votes to retain his post or if deputy leader Catherine Martin will be elected Green Party leader. 

Counting will begin this morning with a result expected at 7pm. Ahead of the vote, Green Party members - 2,336 in Republic of Ireland and 598 in Northern Ireland – were sent a postal ballot. 

A live broadcast will be introduced by the Green Party’s National Coordinator and chair of the leadership hustings Bláithín Gallagher, and the announcement of the vote will be made by the returning officers Meabh Cody and Harry McEvansoneya. 

Ryan – who has held the post since 2011 – was appointed Minister for Climate Action, Communications Networks and Transport in the new Government. 

Martin was appointed deputy leader in 2011 and currently serves as Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht. 

Both Ryan and Martin were the only two Green Party TDs until this year after the party’s disastrous 2011 election result. 

In recent weeks, both Ryan and Martin have made their pitches for the Green Party leadership with Martin saying that experience is “a valuable attribute” but added that it should not be a “prerequisite” to be leader.

“We have to be careful not to over emphasise” it, she said, stating that experience and leadership should not be put on a pedestal. She said now is the time for new, calculated risks to be taken.”

Ryan, meanwhile, came under fire last week after he fell asleep while being called on to vote during a motion on workers’ rights in the Dáil. 

Ryan acknowledged that the incident could damage his prospects in the party’s leadership election.

“It may well do, but I’d have to say to the members of the Green Party that under my leadership, which has been the most successful period in the history of the party… we’ve a parliamentary party of [12 TDs and 4 senators],” he said on Sunday.