DUP’s Diane Forsythe more likely to be elected in South Down than Edwin Poots: Alliance candidate Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown, who came close to claiming one of the five seats on offer at the last Assembly election in 2017 and is hoping for success this time around, believes Ms Forsythe is more likely to make it across the line than former DUP leader Edwin Poots had he been selected.

Speaking to the News Letter, Mr Brown said: “The most likely scenario is there is one safe unionist seat, three safe nationalist seats and then the last one will likely be a scrap between me and the SDLP.

“I don’t think the UUP have even an outside chance. I maybe would have said something differently if Poots was the candidate, because I think that the candidate the DUP have gone for – I get the impression she is well liked and respected. I don’t think Poots, while he has a large profile, would have polled well.”

Asked about his own prospects, Mr Brown said: “I’m a numbers guy. If you look at where Alliance used to be in South Down when I first joined the party, back in 2010 we got about 500 votes in a parliamentary election.

“If you look at where I was runner-up in 2017 we got about 4,500 [first preference] votes and that was about 500 short of what we needed to go ahead of the second SDLP candidate [Colin McGrath MLA].

“If you look at the 2019 Westminster vote we got over 6,900 votes.”

He added: “I believe we can take that fifth seat.”

TUV candidate Harold McKee, meanwhile, said: “It doesn’t matter to me who the DUP candidate is, whether it’s Edwin Poots or Diane Forsythe. It’s about the party and I believe the unionist voters think it’s time for a change.”