That's what the DUP now thinks that Jim Allister's Euro-election campaign is. Or so they claim. A less charitable observer might see Maurice Morrow's statement as evidence of serious DUP concern:
"Jim Allister still has some time to review his position of splitting the Unionist vote and aiding Barbara de Brun. He has until 7th May to withdraw from an election that he knows he cannot win and is only running in because of bitterness towards former colleagues. In a contest that is going to be close, with Sinn Fein trying to win the election, the last thing that Unionism needs is another maverick, putting their own ego before the greater good of Unionism.
Jim Allister needs to put his bitterness towards former colleagues to the one side. He’s had his bit of fun ranting to empty halls about fellow Unionists, but now he needs to think about the damage a split Unionist vote will cause to our community. A Jim Allister candidacy is a bad joke taken too far.”
So, having foolishly chosen the electorally irrelevant issue of "poll-topping" as their battleground, the DUP is still scared that Allister will succeed in eroding their vote sufficiently to cause them humiliation.
Allister has already handed in his nomination papers, and yet the DUP are still begging him to withdraw, rather than dismissing his platform and record. It makes the DUP look pathetic and weak, which, allied to the fact that Diane Dodds is pathetic and weak, will do little to help their campaign.
The DUP are right – Allister cannot realistically win – but the DUP can certainly lose their stature and prestige if he does better than expected. They are already losing their composure, as Morrow has clearly demonstrated.
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5 comments:
How pathetic!
It used to be Jim Allister was irrelevant; now it seems he's so relevant he's going to stop them topping the poll!
It really shows how desperate the DUP are - but the more they make a big deal out of Babs topping the poll, the more of a defeat it is for them when it happens.
But won't McAllister's transfers switch almost intact to the DUP anyway?
Re Allister's transfers, experience (if not intuition) tells us that they will not all transfer to the DUP.
In fact, they may not transfer at all. Many TUV voters will be quite opposed to the DUP (that is, of course the whole raison d'etre of the TUV), and would not transfer to them on principle.
In Dromore last year (only a local by-election, but still ..) less than half of the TUV votes transferred to the DUP when the TUV candidate was liminated.
One thing is certain: any previously-DUP votes that the TUV receive will not come back at a transfer rate of 100%. So the TUV will cost the DUP some votes at least. We'll have to wait to see how many.
It will be the total number one votes of SF and the DUP that will be most interesting.
Poor peter punt and company cannot see sinn féin are no longer the enemy but equal partners in government
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