Westminster list of names still growing
POLITICAL parties across Northern Ireland are busy finalising their list of candidates for the forthcoming Westminster parliamentary election.
The Ulster Unionist party Executive is meeting on Saturday and is expected to confirm several more of the UUP nominees to stand under the Ulster Conservative and Unionists – New Force (UCUNF) banner.
No polling date has been set as yet, but early May is looking increasingly likely as the government's preferred option.
If, as expected, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirms the election date as Thursday May 6, the closing date for the nomination of candidates will be Tuesday, April 20. The latest possible date for the election would be June 3.
Although this allows a few more weeks to progress selection procedures, most of the local parties seem determined to have their candidates confirmed and on the campaign trail well before then.
A total of 18 Westminster seats will be contested across Northern Ireland with the smaller parties targetting only a handful of the constituencies.
The process of selecting joint Tory-UUP candidates has been a slow one.
Where both the Tories and Ulster Unionists put forward a prospective candidate, a selection committee made up of four Tory and four UUP officials recommends an agreed candidate, subject to ratification by the leaderhips of both parties.
Nine agreed Conservative and Unionist candidates have been confirmed so far, and as of last night all were UUP.
Neither the Tories nor the Ulster Unionists would tell us if any Tories had been nominated as the joint candidate in these nine seats before a UUP nominee was agreed.
The News Letter understands that two of the seats did have Conservative nominees, who then lost out to the UUP nominee.
Included among the first nine of UCUNF are ex-Freddie Mercury impersonator Harry Hamilton (Upper Bann), ex-rugby international Nigel Ringland (East Belfast), ex-TV presenter Mike Nesbitt (Strangford) and Daphne Trimble, wife of ex-First Minister, David.
The DUP have named 13 of their team to contest the election and there is a familiar look to the list.
First Minister Peter Robinson, the sitting East Belfast MP with a majority of 7,000 votes, is set to discover if the recent controversies surrounding both his political and private life will have any effect on his electoral fortunes.
The SDLP's list of candidates also has a familiar look to it as all eleven of the nominees to date have a political track record.
Sinn Fein have all but a couple of candidates selected and will be as organised as ever in the pursuit of electoral success.
The party's five sitting MPs will be defending their seats and many well-known names make up the list of hopefuls in the other constituencies.
Only nine Alliance candidates have been nominated so far but there are no real surprises expected when the others are finally announced. Naomi Long will almost certainly contest East Belfast in what is shaping up to be one of the most interesting constituencies in the campaign.
Jim Allister's TUV have confirmed they are targetting six seats at present with others to follow. The party leader is to go head-to-head with Ian Paisley Jnr in North Antrim in another of the fascinating contests.
Stephen Agnew has been selected by the Green Party to run in North Down and Cadogan Enright in South Down. The party is expected to announce a third and final candidate, to contest the South Belfast seat, within days.
The PUP are undecided if they will expend any energy on a Westminster campaign but it is looking increasingly unlikely.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
