News

Can Jonathan Bell fight the DUP machine for Strangford re-election?

Strangford Lough and the Ards Pennisula are idylic areas of interest in the constituency of Strangford. Picture by Hugh Russell
Strangford Lough and the Ards Pennisula are idylic areas of interest in the constituency of Strangford. Picture by Hugh Russell Strangford Lough and the Ards Pennisula are idylic areas of interest in the constituency of Strangford. Picture by Hugh Russell

SOME might say he is the person who started the election ball rolling.

Jonathan Bell's testimony over the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) scandal may have prompted the eventual collapse of Stormont, but he's back with the hope that voters of Strangford will stand by him.

The former enterprise minister is standing in the Assembly election as an Independent following his suspension from the DUP after an explosive television interview on the botched RHI scheme.

Breaking ranks from the party, a tearful Mr Bell claimed in December that he tried to close the flawed scheme but was prevented from doing so by former First Minister Arlene Foster, who demanded he keep it open despite huge losses.

An MLA for Strangford since 2010, Mr Bell secured 3,400 first preference votes as a DUP candidate last May and says that this time round, "it is time for truth".

But how will be fare against his former DUP colleagues?

His share was lower last May than economy minister Simon Hamilton and agriculture minister Michelle McIlveen, whom he will face once again in this constituency.

And a third DUP minister has also joined the ticket here for the March 2 poll, following a decision by the party to shift education minister Peter Weir from North Down.

Mr Weir's seat in North Down was viewed as being under threat, as all 18 constituencies go from six seats to five, and the education minister received the lowest first preference vote in his constituency last May.

It will be a tight race for the five seats in Strangford, where Ulster Unionist Mike Nesbitt topped the poll last May.

Mr Nesbitt has spent much of the last nine months positioning his party alongside the SDLP as an alternative partnership government at Stormont to take the place of the long-standing DUP/Sinn Féin coalition.

Will this sit well with voters this time round and will his pledge to give his own second preference vote to the SDLP also affect his standing?

Mr Nesbitt is running again alongside party colleague Philip Smith, who took the sixth seat last year behind Alliance's Kellie Armstrong, who is also standing again.

SDLP councillor Joe Boyle will make his fifth attempt at becoming an MLA in Strangford, a constituency which has never elected a nationalist to the assembly.

Mr Boyle, who is the only nationalist councillor out of 40 elected representatives on Ards and North Down borough council, has stood unsuccessfully in the constituency since 2003.

He was pipped at the post by Mr Smith last May and came within 31 votes of being elected to Stormont in 2007.

All of the main parties have a battle on their hands to retain their seats in Strangford, but commentators have suggested it's the UUP which looks the most vulnerable.

But the interest will surely be on Mr Bell. Going it alone without the DUP party machine behind him, can he rock the political foundations once again?

*************

2016 share of first preference vote

DUP 43.6%

UUP 19.5%

All 10.7%

SDLP 8.3%

Ind 5.9%

TUV 4.3%

Green 2.8%

UKIP 2.3%

SF 2%

NI Con 1%

*****

CANDIDATES

Kellie Armstrong (All)

Ricky Bamford (Green)

Jonathan Bell (Ind)

Scott Benton (Conservatives)

Joe Boyle (SDLP)

Stephen Cooper (TUV)

Simon Hamilton (DUP)

Dermot Kennedy (SF)

Michelle McIlveen (DUP)

Jimmy Menagh (Ind)

Mike Nesbitt (UUP)

Philip Smith (UUP)

Peter Weir (DUP)

***

Seats won by party in 2016

DUP: 3

UUP: 2

All: 1