Michelle Gildernew.
By Ryan Smith
VOTERS KNOW the forthcoming Westminster election is a two-horse race, Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew has said.
The current MP, who is standing for the fourth time in May’s elections, was speaking to the Fermanagh Herald following the announcement that the UUP’s Tom Elliott had received the backing of the DUP in the election.
The MP described the pact as ‘sectarian’, but dismissed that a similar pact suggested by Sinn Fein, involving the SDLP, could also be described as sectarian.
“I suppose it didn’t really come as an out-and-out surprise,” Ms Gildernew said, “We knew that the Orange Order in particular were trying very hard to find a credible candidate but were having difficulty.
“I also know that when Tom announced his candidacy a number of weeks ago, one of the first people to react was Arlene (Foster, DUP) who said he hadn’t a chance of getting the seat. And I thought her very lukewarm comments to the media indicated that he wouldn’t have been in the top ten of the DUP’s choices.”
Asked to elaborate on the description of the unionist pact as ‘sectarian’, Ms Gildernew said: “I think a lot of people saw it as sectarian because it was those forced within unionism that were organising it.”
She added that the ‘common denominator is by in large religion’.
“I do feel that because the Orange Order have been driving it this time, and we know the nature of the Orange Order as an organisation, that that was still their mantra.
“I think people see it as a throwback to the past, to the old ‘not having a Catholic about the place’ and that sickens Protestants as much as Catholics in my opinion anyway, they’re offended by it.”
It was put to Ms Gildernew that last year the SDLP dismissed overtures from Sinn Fein to engage in a pact with a single nationalist candidate in Fermanagh South Tyrone. Could a pan-nationalist pact, then, also be considered sectarian?
“I think it’s a different thing because what we were talking about was a progressive alliance. We’re looking at people that are along the same lines as ourselves in terms of equality legislation, in terms of issues like marriage equality. If you look at what ourselves and the SDLP are against: We’re against the conscience clause, we’re against the refusal of certain unionists to recognise marriage equality. I think what we were trying to bring forward was a more progressive alliance of like-minded people.”
She also said that the idea of that pact was a direct response to the emergence of the possibility of a unionist pact.
“We would have not even have gone down that route had it not been for the forces of unionism coming together to try and dictate who represented constituencies. It’s a reaction to a unionist pact, we certainly would not have been going down this road had it not been for the fact in four constituencies, key constituencies, unionists have got together to try and keep Sinn Fein out.”
While the likelihood of a Sinn Fein SDLP pact seems very unlikely at this stage, Ms Gildernew declared that 2015 is essentially a two-horse race.
“I think a lot of SDLP voters – whatever John Coyle does is up to himself – but a lot of SDLP voters will look at the reality of the situation, will recognise that their options for Fermanagh South Tyrone are Tom Elliott or me. And I think many of them will vote for me on that basis.”
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