Doherty re-selected for West Tyrone

Pat Doherty (centre) with Cllr Jarlath McNulty, chair of Strabane District Council, and Cllr Seán Clarke, chair of Omagh District Council

Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty was unanimously re-selected as the Sinn Féin Westminster Candidate for West Tyrone at a packed party convention in Carrickmore on Monday night.

The sitting MP was nominated and seconded by Councillors Jarlath McNulty and Seán Clarke, the Council Chairs of Strabane and Omagh, respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Pat Doherty said that he was honoured to have been re-selected to carry the flag for Sinn Féin in West Tyrone and paid tribute to the dedication and hard work of the party organisation throughout the constituency.

"Our objective in these forthcoming elections is to consolidate the four Westminster seats that we secured in 2001 and to win additional Westminster seats," he said. "In terms of the local elections, our aim is to win a substantial number of additional Council seats, including here in West Tyrone.

"We are not building political strength for the sake of it. We are building political strength throughout this island as part of a strategy to bring about Irish re-unification and true equality for all the citizens on the Island.

"For differing reasons our political and securocrat opponents are united in the objective of attempting to put the brakes on Sinn Féin's electoral and organisational growth.

"The NIO's top securocrat Joe Pilling stated, at what he thought was a private meeting in the US in October, that the worst case scenario would be that Sinn Féin would become the largest party in the north and that the priority was to stop this happening.

"The full frontal onslaught now being rolled out against Sinn Féin is therefore no coincidence.

"However, what our political and securocrats opponents have not learned, despite all the lessons from history, is that republicans thrive on adversity.

"It is expected that both the Westminster and local elections will be held on 5 May. No one here needs to be told the significance of this date in the republican calendar. The British failed to undermine or criminalise the republican struggle in 1981 and it will fail again."