TWO CANDIDATES are to contest the Ulster Unionist Party leadership election next month.
In a statement last night, the party confirmed that Lagan Valley Assembly member Basil McCrea and his Fermanagh colleague Tom Elliott will bid to replace Sir Reg Empey as party leader at a special meeting to be held in Belfast on September 22nd.
“Now that nominations have closed, the Ulster Unionist Party will hold a number of internal party meetings where the leadership candidates will be able to put forward their views on how the party should move forward,” the statement said.
Nominations closed at 5pm and there was no surprise nomination from a third candidate despite rumours to the contrary when Sir Reg announced earlier this month he was quitting.
Unionist unity, involving closer co-operation with Peter Robinson’s DUP, is likely to emerge as a key election issue.
Mr Elliott, who helped engineer an agreed single unionist candidate in the Fermanagh South Tyrone constituency in May’s Westminster election, is widely believed to be in favour of closer links with the DUP.
Mr McCrea believes that such so-called “traditional unionism” has failed his party and partly explains why up to 100,000 unionist supporters have tended not to vote in recent polls.
Sir Reg decided to vacate the leadership after he failed to unseat the DUP MP for South Antrim, the Rev William McCrea, at the last Westminster election.