UUP candidate signs pledge on transfer votes

Ian McCandless was one of a number of grassroots unionists from across different parties who arranged a unionist hustings event in Armagh city Orange Hall on Tuesday night.

Draft ballot papers were given out to all who attended. Mr McCandless said: “One of our key objectives was to raise awareness of the three candidates and hammer home the message that unionists should transfer their votes within the unionist family regardless of who you put as your first preference candidate.”

He said 121 people present took part in the mock ballot and 95 transferred votes to all three unionist candidates. Ten candidates only voted for one candidate only while the other 15 only transferred to two unionist candidates.

The three candidates are TUV candidate Keith Ratcliffe, DUP candidate William Irwin and UUP candidate David Taylor. Key questions were put to them on the NHS, cost of living crisis, the NI Protocol and transferring votes.

“We asked all three candidates to sign a pledge in front of everyone that they would ask their supporters to transfer their votes to other unionist candidates in the election - and all three did,” he said.

He said the UUP candidate David Taylor signing the pledge apparently went against his party policy. Mr McCandless said UUP party leader Doug Beattie had asked UUP voters to transfer their votes to “just whoever you want” but is “not encouraging people to transfer only to other unionist candidates”. The UUP was invited to respond to the comments.

In February DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and TUV leader Jim Allister revealed that they had agreed to ‘cooperate’ on transfer votes and called for UUP leader Doug Beattie to join them. However the UUP declined.

A UUP spokesperson responded: “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.”

Some polls suggest that Sinn Fein could emerge as the largest single party in this election.