Former UUP chairman asks when party ‘moved away’ from DUP-TUV position on transfer votes?

Mr Campbell, who was party chairman from 2005-1012, made his comments after the UUP confirmed to the News Letter yesterday that it would not be joining a DUP-TUV agreement to urge followers to mark their transfer votes for other unionists in the forthcoming assembly election.

The issue has come more to the fore as Sinn Fein and the DUP debate who is most likely to take the position of First Minister in the election.

Mr Campbell told the News Letter: “The reports that the UUP has decided not to advise unionist voters to transfer to other unionist candidates in the forthcoming Assembly elections is a mistake and flies in the face of the Party’s history since PR elections were introduced.

“As UUP policy is determined by the Party Executive, and not the Party Leader, perhaps the Spokesman quoted yesterday can clarify when this Party policy was changed. Most unionist voters are annoyed by unionist infighting but at the very least they expect unionist candidates to recommend subsequent transfers to all other unionist parties.

“In an election where the final seats are won on very tight margins it is vital that all unionist votes transfer efficiently. Add to the mix that the Alliance Party is so clearly a nationalist flag-carrier now it increases the imperative for unionist co-operation.

“Does the UUP leadership not see that it is in its own interests that it receives as well as gives transfers? This new policy, unless changed, might well be the final nail in the coffin for the UUP”.

The UUP has been invited to respond.

Mr Campbell is now chairman of the Loyalist Communities Council, which includes representatives of the UVF, UDA and RHC.

He was speaking after a meeting in Dromore, Co Down last week where DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson revealed he had reached an agreement with TUV leader Jim Allister that they would ‘cooperate’ in the election, with both calling on UUP leader Doug Beattie to join them.

Mr Donaldson said that “we are agreed that we will jointly call for all the people who vote for our parties to transfer their votes to pro-Union anti-protocol parties”.

He added: “We have an opportunity in this election to maximise the number of unionists who are returned to the Assembly.”

But, he said that what he wants to avoid is what happened in the last Assembly election. “I stood at the last Assembly election in this constituency and I watched, for the final seat in Lagan Valley, unionist transfers going to the SDLP and defeating a unionist candidate.”

Mr Allister he would not define the agreement with the DUP as a pact. “I have said and he [Jeffrey] has said unionists should transfer to other anti-protocol unionists,” he said. “I’d like to see Doug Beattie say the same. TUV has always been clear that unionists need to vote down the ballot for all pro-Union candidates in the order of their preference. With the protocol a live issue this is all the more important.

“TUV will be making it clear during the campaign and in our election literature that after voting TUV electors should continue to vote for pro-Union, anti-protocol candidates.”

However the UUP confirmed to the News Letter this week that it would take a different position on transfer votes to the DUP and TUV.

A UUP spokesperson said: “We are offering fresh leadership to Northern Ireland so we are asking people to vote for their Ulster Unionist Party Candidates. The Ulster Unionist Party believes the Northern Ireland electorate are more than capable of deciding for themselves who they should give their transfers to.

“They need to be trusted more and dictated to less. It is up to each party to set out their vision for Northern Ireland to attract first preference votes and transfers.”

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson responded: “The party of Carson and Craig flatly refuse to encourage transfers to other unionists. This comes only a few short years after the ‘vote Mike get Column’ debacle whereby the UUP urged voters to transfer to the SDLP.

“It is clear the soul of the once proud UUP has been taken captive by a small cabal of liberals who believe that Twitter is the real world and that the praise being heaped on them by nationalists will translate into votes. It’s madness.”

The issue of maximising unionist votes has come to the fore even more than usual as unionists discuss how to respond to claims from some polls that Sinn Fein could emerge as the largest single party in this election.

This has caused intense debate about whether Sinn Fein could take the First Minister position for the first time.

MORE NEWS:

UUP rejects DUP-TUV election deal to ‘maximise unionist votes’ in Assembly election

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