FOUR CANDIDATES have entered the contest to succeed Margaret Ritchie as the next leader of the SDLP, all planning to campaign on manifestos of reorganisation and renewal.
At 5pm yesterday – the closing time for nominations – the South Belfast MP and Assembly member Dr Alasdair McDonnell, the South Belfast Assembly member Conall McDevitt and the West Belfast Minister of the Environment Alex Attwood had joined deputy leader Patsy McGlone in seeking the leadership.
The election to the post will take place at the SDLP annual conference in Belfast in November.
Early last month the Mid-Ulster Assembly member Mr McGlone declared first to run, deciding to seek the leadership after the SDLP’s poor performance in the May Assembly elections when it lost two seats, dropping from 16 to 14 Stormont seats.
Next to officially declare that he would also be challenging was Dr McDonnell whom Ms Ritchie defeated for the leadership in February last year. He told reporters yesterday morning that he believed he was the only candidate who could halt the decline of the party and “make the SDLP truly electable again”. He said he would be campaigning on a platform of “renewal, renaissance and self-belief”.
The party’s former director of communications Mr McDevitt issued a statement in the afternoon saying he too was running on a policy of reinvigoration and renewal.
Mr Attwood said it would be a long time before the party recovered its previous strength. “But the power of our ideas, values and the skills of our people remain and are essential to move our politics well beyond the progress of recent years,” he said.
Mr McGlone said he too would be seeking to reform, rebuild and restore party fortunes.
