Despite their huffing and puffing about contesting the vacant seat on Strabane District Council, the unionists did nothing, and allowed Sinn Féin to co-opt Ruairi McHugh to replace his late father as Councillor for Derg DEA.
The Ulster Unionist Party had signalled their intent to contest the co-option and instead force a by-election for the seat. UUP Councillor Derek Hussey had said that a final decision would not be announced until November 11, when the issue came before the council. But when the day came, he sang dumb.
Perhaps they had re-examined the data and realised that their chances of winning were too slim. Derg is a majority-nationalist DEA (52.3% Nationalist, 47.7% Unionist, in 2005) and becoming more so every year. Forcing a by-election, and then losing it, is embarrassing, as the DUP learned in Dromore and the UUP learned in Enniskillen.
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My prediction proves to be correct as the forecaster's was in an earlier article.
Re Mr Hussey of the UUP, it is my understanding that he was'nt even present at the council meeting.
In my opinion the SF candidate would have wiped the floor with any other cndidate had a by election been called given the high esteem that the late Cllr Charlie Mc Hugh was held in the Derg DEA.
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