BY MARK McKELVEY

m.mckelvey@ulsterherald.com

CURRENT Ulster Unionist assembly member for West Tyrone, Derek Hussey has again been nominated as the parties candidate for the forthcoming election in March.

This is the first time the UUP have nominated only one candidate, as in previous assembly elections they have had two party candidates on the ticket. This decision was made at the parties Annual General Meeting of the West Tyrone Constituency on Monday night.

Strabane District Councillor Derek Hussey was unanimously supported by the Association and he thanked them for their support and promised to continue to represent the Constituency to the best of his ability.

He said, "I thank the association for again giving me the privilege of representing the Ulster Unionist Party in any forthcoming assembly election."

Giving an optimistic outlook for his parties success and restoration of devolved institutions, Cllr Hussey stated, "I am certainly hopeful in the current political climate that the UUP can and will retain a seat in West Tyrone. There is a heartfelt desire among our people for the return of devolved administration with local representatives playing their part in decisions that impact in all of our daily lives.

"I look forward to a return of such a situation and relish the challenge of being involved again in such a situation with the permission of the people of West Tyrone."

He concluded, "I would urge all electors in the constituency to vote in the forthcoming election to have their say on who they wish to represent them."

Derek's brother, Omagh Councillor and West Tyrone UUP Association Secretary, Ross Hussey explained the parties single candidate strategy.

"We felt this was the best strategy for this election, we are content to run with one candidate and Derek is our sitting member of the assembly and we are quite happy to support him in this election," stated Cllr Ross Hussey.

Ross expressed that he feels having only one candidate will not hinder their chance of retaining their seat under the proportional representation election method that permits the voter to indicating the order of preference of their favoured candidates.

"There will always be transfer of votes between various politicians in the Omagh and West Tyrone area, both personality votes and party votes," he said. "We are content that we will strongly receive transfer votes. We would be more than happy if our candidate is elected in the first run but we are content we have a sufficient back-up in the event we need transfers, that we get them from other parties or candidates."

Deputy Leader of the UUP Assembly Party Cllr Danny Kennedy MLA who was guest speaker at the West Tyrone AGM, congratulated Cllr Hussey on his selection and informed the delegates that Cllr Hussey was a regular contributor to Assembly debates and that he continually made representations to the various Departments on behalf of the people of West Tyrone.

Meanwhile at the meeting the election of officers was conducted, which resulted as follows: - President Mrs Mary Briton, Vice Presidents Mr Lexie McLaren, Mr Crawford McFarland OBE, Mr P Hill Robinson JP, Mr Mitchell Cummings and Mr Edward Turner MBE.

Chairman Cllr Allan Rainey MBE, Vice Chair Mr Leslie Craig OBE, Secretary Cllr Ross Hussey, and Treasurer Mr John Bleakley.