Outgoing DUP leader Arlene Foster has confirmed she will vote in the internal party leadership process to find her successor, but declined to say who she would be backing out of the contenders, DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Stormont Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots.
Speaking during a joint visit with Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill to Clandeboye Golf Club in Bangor, “I will be voting, one should always use your vote regardless of what the election is. I will be voting on Friday. I won’t be saying who I’m voting for because I think that would be incredibly unfair,” she said.
The party’s 28 MLAs and eight MPs will decide whether Sir Jeffrey or leadership rival Mr Poots succeeds the deposed Ms Foster in a vote, by secret ballot, on Friday.
Mrs Foster has previously said she will wait until she steps down as first minister at the end of June before outlining her intention on whether she will leave the DUP altogether.
It was reported that she plans to cut ties completely with the party she joined in 2003 after defecting from the Ulster Unionists.
Mrs Foster said politics was a "very brutal game" before explaining that none of those who initiated her downfall had yet to contact her.
"I haven't actually spoken to any of the colleagues who are purported to have signed the letters, they haven't been in touch – so, you know, that's a matter for them," she said.
"I'll move on and look forward, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter as to what I'm going to do with my life."
Recently they played football in Magherafelt. Today @DUPleader and @moneillsf tried putting at @ClandeboyeGC FM and DFM sporting tour 2021. pic.twitter.com/zODZcgorLG
— Stephen Walker (@StepWalkTV) May 12, 2021
