McCallion endorsed as SFWestminster candidate

The MLA and former councillor for the Ballyarnett District Electoral Area of Derry City and Strabane District Council was endorsed, as the only nominee, at a selection meeting.

Mrs. McCallion recently spearheaded Sinn Féin’s best ever election result in Derry, topping the poll in the Assembly election in March with 9,205 first preference votes, 20.7 per cent of all valid ballot papers. She is now likely to face nationalist rival Mark Durkan of the SDLP, long dominant in Foyle, in the Westminster poll on June 8.

Mrs. McCallion believes Sinn Féin can challenge this summer.

“Despite the narrow political motivation behind the calling of a Westminster election, Irish republicans must seize the opportunity to further to build political progress towards a referendum on Irish unity. It is an opportunity to reject the Tory political agenda, to re-assert the North’s vote to remain within the EU, and to advance the cause of a shared inclusive and United Ireland,” she recently commented.