Mark Durkan is favourite to retain his Foyle seat in June’s General Election
THE TORY Government has now called for a snap election on Thursday, June 8.
But who will fight it out for the Foyle constituency which has always been a safe SDLP seat?
In the 2015 General Election, the sitting MP Mark Durkan comfortably retained his seat with a 16 per cent majority over Sinn Fein.
The former SDLP leader saw his vote rise by 3.4 per cent to 17, 725 first past the post votes.
But Sinn Fein saw its vote in the constituency fall by 0.6 per cent.
Candidate Gearoid O’Heara polled 11,679 votes – a gap of over 6,000 behind Mr Durkan whose share of the vote rose to 47.9 per cent of the Foyle electorate.
Now Sinn Fein will have to decide on whether to run Mr O’Heara again or bring in another high profile candidate in a bid to wrestle the Foyle seat from the SDLP.
There will be no Martin McGuinness pulling power on the hustings for the Sinn Fein candidate this time around following his death last month.
Will Sinn Fein’s leader in the North turn to a former party MLA in Foyle to run this time around against Mark Durkan?
Maeve McLaughlin lost her Assembly seat in the 2016 elections when Sinn Fein thought it could take three seats in the constituency and parachuted Martin McGuinness in as a candidate.
The move spectacularly backfired on the party.
Ms McLaughlin was squeezed out by Mr McGuinness and the third seat was taken by veteran Derry trade unionist Eamonn McCann.
