Jim Wells says he would consider running against the DUP…

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Veteran politician Jim Wells is not going quietly into the night. He is making noises that he might run against the DUP in South Down. He has not said if he will run as an independent or for another Unionist party. In the 2017 Assembly elections, he got 7,786 first preference votes. I am terrible at maths so I will leave the more numerate commenters to discuss how this might affect the seats. Table from Wikipedia.

He is a canny media operator who can turn the DUP snub into a positive. One to watch.

2017 Assembly election: South Down – 5 seats[1]
Party Candidate FPv% Count
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sinn Féin Sinéad Ennis 20.76% 10,256
Sinn Féin Chris Hazzard 17.87% 8,827
SDLP Sinéad Bradley 14.82% 7,323 7,487 8,906.12
DUP Jim Wells 15.76% 7,786 8,088 8,091.36 8,091.64 10,821.64
SDLP Colin McGrath 10.34% 5,110 5,202 5,512.8 6,043.68 6,632.42 7,228.42 7,613.62
Alliance Patrick Brown 9.18% 4,535 4,883 5,101.64 5,194.88 6,007.82 6,730.82 6,874.66
UUP Harold McKee 8.45% 4,172 4,509 4,522.44 4,527.76
TUV Lyle Rea 1.28% 630
Green (NI) Hannah George 0.98% 483
Independent Patrick Clarke 0.39% 192
NI Conservatives Gary Hynds 0.17% 85
Electorate: 75,415   Valid: 49,399 (65.50%)   Spoilt: 535   Quota: 8,234   Turnout: 49,932 (66.21%)

 

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