Ulster Unionist Councillor, Doug Beattie MC, has stated that comments made by the DUP at the weekend indicate the panic that has set in at the heart of the David Simpson campaign team.
Councillor Doug Beattie MC said:
“The claims made by the DUP at the weekend about Upper Bann are an indication that David Simpson and his campaign team are in full panic mode where they have to promote fear over hope because they don`t have anything else to offer. It is a sad state of affairs that as a desperate measure, David Simpson is actively talking up the prospects of Sinn Fein.
“The most recent elections in the Upper Bann area were the 2014 Council elections. In the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council area, the Ulster Unionist Party were over 2,000 votes ahead of the DUP.
“As recently as 20th March 2015 on the BBC's Inside Politics programme, when we heard BBC Northern Ireland`s Political Editor, Mark Devenport, ask the question if there was a prospect of a Sinn Fein candidate winning Upper Bann, Nicholas Whyte, who runs the ARK elections website, responded by saying, ‘I don`t see it in the numbers, to be perfectly honest. In the end Upper Bann is a Unionist majority constituency by quite a long way.’
“Upper Bann is a two horse race between the old and the new, between tired thinking and fresh thinking, between Simpson and Dobson. Our message is clear - vote for hope, not fear. That`s why I`ll be voting for Jo-Anne Dobson on 7th May. I encourage others to do the same.”
