UUP Leader Reg Empey to Fight Wille McCrea for South Antrim

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After a long, drawn-out selection saga Sir Reg Empey has emerged as the Conservative & Unionist alliance's choice as candidate for South Antrim at the forthcoming general election.

It's a bold move by Empey who will have to explain to the elctorate why he felt double-jobbing was wrong for East Belfast, where he is an MLA, but not for South Antrim. Sir Reg is also Minister for Employment & Learning in the 'dysfunctional' Stormont Executive and a Belfast City councillor.

In what is probably the UUP's most winnable seat Empey will come up against the DUP incumbent Rev William McCrea, who himself 'parachuted' into South Antrim after losing Mid-Ulster to Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness at the 1997 General election. McCrea won South Antrim at a 2000 by-election before losing out to the UUP's David Burnside at the following year's General Election. The singing cleric recaptured the seat for the DUP in 2005 with a majority just shy of three and a half thousand.

The intervention of Traditional Unionist Voice candidate Mel Lucas could be a decisive factor in the outcome of the contest. Other candidates include Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLoughlin (another parachutist) and Alan Lawther of the Alliance Party.

One early challenge Empey will face is to bring on board disgruntled supporters of UUP colleague, Adrian Watson, who was denied the UCUNF nomination due to Conservative Party objections to his controversial stance on gay rights.

BBC News - Sir Reg to stand in south Antrim

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8E2pI_-0A"]YouTube- Rev. William McCrea MP sings "Golden Jubilee"[/nomedia]

[simon bolivar]

This constituency looks a bit like Normandy in 1944 with so many parashutes overhead.

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