McGuinness to quit Westminster seat

Sinn Féin are showing they are serious about ending double jobbing with the announcement today that the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is to resign his Westminster seat for Mid Ulster and concentrate on his Assembly duties. There will be a by election in the Autumn.

However, four of his Stormont colleagues including the former Ministers for Agriculture and Rural Development Michelle Gildernew and for Regional Development Conor Murphy along with former Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty and recently elected MP Paul Maskey will all step down from their Assembly seats, in order for them to concentrate on spending more time avoiding the House of Commons chamber.

Mid Ulster Constituency

As the Assembly allows party’s to co-opt members to replace retiring or dying members there will not therefore be five by elections just the one in Mid Ulster. New MLAs will be appointed from within the party for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Newry and Armagh, West Tyrone and Belfast West.

Sinn Féin have held the Mid Ulster seat since 1997 when McGuinness defeated the DUP’s William McCrea by 1883 votes. McCrea tried to win it back in 1992 only to lose by almost 10,000 votes. Since then his son Ian, who is an MLA for the area,  has been the DUP candidate but by 2010 was 15,363 votes behind McGuinness  but only 50 votes ahead of the SDLP’s Tony Quinn. The UUP’s Women’s Development Officer and now MLA Sandra Overend came in fourth place.

It will be interesting to see if the other parties run MLA’s in this by election which is seen by one party as a way to end double jobbing. Especially as both the main Unionist parties candidates last time either were or now are MLAs.

 

Oliver Napier

The man who almost defeated Peter Robinson with the woman who did. Sir Oliver Napier with Naomi Long

It is sad news this morning that Northern Ireland learnt of the passing of Sir Oliver Napier.

He originally joined the Ulster Liberal Party in 1969 before becoming a founding member of the Alliance Party in 1970 he led the party from 1972-1984 as the first leader.

Indeed until last year had been the closest any Alliance candidate had come to getting elected to Westminster, when in 1979 he was came close to beating Peter Robinson in Belfast East: coming only 928 votes behind in third place in a three-way battle.  When Naomi Long took that seat off the same Peter Robinson in the 2010 General Election it could be seen as a breakthrough for the “alternative reform political programme to push through and continue reformation in Northern Ireland” that was what Napier said about the creation of the new party 40 years earlier.
In the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly he also set a precedent for the current Assembly when he served as the Legal Minister and head of the Office of Law Reform. When the post was devolved again in 2010 it fell to the Alliance Party leader David Ford to be elected Minister of Justice.

Oliver Napier who stood here in North Down the only time I have able to vote in a Westminster election. Having stepped back up to the ballot box for the 1995 by-election to replace jim Kilfedder he stood again for the 1997 General Election, by which time I was back in Northern Ireland. So far he is the only Northern Irish politician I have voted for with an X.

As Alliance Party leader David Ford said today:

“This is an extremely sad day for Northern Ireland. Oliver embodied the spirit of Alliance and he was the man who inspired me to join the party.

“Sir Oliver was very highly respected and popular with everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. His legacy can be seen right at the heart of the party to this day and he will very sadly missed.”

Like David, we in the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats wish to pass on our regards, thoughts and prayers to his widow Briege, nine children and 23 grandchildren at this difficult time.