The TUV have announced that their candidate for South Down in the forthcoming General Election will be the Party Chairman and native of Kilkeel, Ivor McConnell.

Speaking after he was unanimously selected by South Down TUV Association Mr McConnell said:

“I am honoured and delighted to have the opportunity to stand as the Traditional Unionist candidate in my home area in the General Election. With TUV entering the race in South Down the electorate now have an option on the ballot paper which advocates:

•  Parental choice in the educational progress of their children including the retention of the grammar school option and retention of the Education Boards, in contrast to Sinn Fein’s dogma of destruction;
•  Committed and consistent opposition to the Sinn Fein/IRA agenda both at Westminster and at Stormont - not just lip service to it at election time;
•  Rejection of a National Park scheme which deprives the major stake-holders, the land owners, of basic rights over their own property. The full tourist potential of the Mournes and the wider South Down area can and should be harnessed and developed without the inhibiting bureaucracy of a national park;
•  Opposition to the dysfunctional government which misgoverns us from Stormont, which must be renovated into a new arrangement which allows for a voluntary coalition and an effective Opposition;
•  Policies designed to sustain and expand employment in South Down, including in manufacturing, farming and fishing.  The tax system requires reform to encourage economic growth and excessive overheads of high energy costs must be addressed;
•  Outright rejection of the devolution of powers over policing and justice to an Executive which contains convicted terrorists and IRA Army Council members. This is an insult to the real victims of terror of which South Down had too many and
•  No diminution of the security necessary to ensure  public safety in South Down especially in light of the continuing republican terrorist threat.
 
Commenting on the South Down contest TUV Leader Jim Allister QC said:-

“I am pleased to endorse and recommend Ivor McConnell for your support in this important election. Ivor is a man of real ability, with experience and strength of character to go with it.

“The choice for Unionists in South Down is clear: either vote for those who sustain McGuinness and Sinn Fein in power at Stormont, or vote for the only party opposed to terrorists in government, TUV. Only a vote for TUV is a truly anti-Sinn Fein vote.
 
“Every day in the terrorist-inclusive Executive at Stormont we see the handiwork of push-over unionists, who promise one policy and then for the sake of office embrace the opposite. Jim Wells may have abandoned his 2005 manifesto pledge of mandatory coalition with Sinn Fein being ‘out of the question’, but TUV will not let you down; our politics are driven by conscience, not expediency.
 
“I know thousands of Unionists in South Down supported me in the European election. I ask you to strengthen our hand by again voting TUV on this occasion."