Candidates set to debate questions in hustings event

Candidates set to debate questions in hustings event

22 April 2015

CANDIDATES running in the South Down general election are gearing themselves up for the first of two public debates.

The seven politicians will come together for the first debate in the St Patrick Centre, in Downpatrick, on Thursday, April 23 at 7.30pm. A second debate will take place one week later, on Thursday, April 30, in the Newcastle Centre.

The debates will be between Felicity Buchan (Conservative), Chris Hazzard (Sinn Fein), Harold McKee (Ulster Unionist), Henry Reilly (UKIP), Margaret Ritchie (SDLP), Martyn Todd (Alliance) and Jim Wells (DUP).

The debates are unprecedented in the history of local politics in South Down as the first time politicians have come together to debate local issues as part of any election campaign.

The debate in the St Patrick Centre will be chaired by Paul Symington, editor of the Down Recorder, and the debate in Newcastle will be chaired by the editor of the Mourne Observer, Stephen Patton.

They will be run along the lines of the BBC Question Time panel discussion with questions being submitted by members of the public for discussion on the relevant evenings.

The chairmen will select the questions and the people who posed them will ask the questions personally during the debates. The debates will run for 90 minutes and because of the number of candidates debating the issues there will not be the time for audience participation in the discussions.

The St Patrick Centre seats around 120 people and members of the public will be admitted on a first come, first served basis. There is considerable interest in the debates and people interested in attending are advised to get to the centre early to ensure a seat.

Since the debates were launched last week a series of questions have already been submitted by members of the public on a wide variety of subjects. However, given the publicity surrounding the reduction in services at the Downe Hospital, health features strongly among the questions.

Anyone who wants to submit a question can do so by emailing the Down Recorder on editor@thedownrecorder.co.uk. Questions can also be submitted through the Down Recorder Facebook site or on our Twitter site, @DownRec.