First timer is delighted by UUP vote

First timer is delighted by UUP vote

13 May 2015

DELIGHTED Ulster Unionist candidate Harold McKee said his party can look forward to next year’s Assembly elections following their success across the Province with increasing confidence.

As he prepared to leave the count centre at the Lagan Valley Leisureplex just before 4.30am last Friday, there was no mistaking the beaming smile on his face after the UUP man polled more votes than his DUP and UKIP rivals.

Ahead of the Westminster election, some pundits were suggesting UKIP would finish ahead of the Ulster Unionists and the DUP in South Down, but Mr McKee said his superb performance did not come as a surprise to him and was the product of hard work on the ground and the efforts by senior party figures to raise the UUP profile.

The Kilkeel councillor was delighted to make his way to podium behind the SDLP’s Margaret Ritchie and Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard, telling a packed room that he was speaking next because he had secured the highest unionist vote in South Down, polling 800 more votes than John McCallister did when he stood for the UUP in 2010.

Mr McKee said he was not surprised with his vote “but extremely content” and believes the Ulster Unionist Party will secure an Assembly seat when voters go to the polls next May to elect Stormont’s new MLAs

“We worked hard to get this result and in the year ahead we have a good possibility of securing an Assembly seat,” he continued, explaining his name may well be the one chosen by his party to contest the election. 

“This vote is only the beginning,” he declared. “Despite what others may say, I have no doubt there were Ulster Unionists who voted for Margaret Ritchie, as they have done in the past, as part of a tactic to ensure Sinn Fein does not win the South Down seat. I am confident those unionists who voted for Margaret this time around will be supporting my party at next year’s Assembly election.”

He added: “The party’s motto ‘vote for change’ has resonated with the electorate and we are looking forward to the future and will continue to work hard on the ground and build towards the Assembly election. 

“If I was offered the chance to contest an Assembly seat in South Down I would not refuse it. Margaret Ritchie’s Westminster victory was a foregone conclusion and I have no doubt she did receive a unionist vote but my party will get the vast majority of those votes back at the Assembly election. It is an election the Ulster Unionist Party can look forward to.”