THE NORTH'S DUP economy minister Arlene Foster is to stand in a byelection in Enniskillen in September notwithstanding a ministerial statement to the Assembly this year where she said she planned to remove the political dual mandate.
The DUP has decided to stand its most high-profile candidate in the Fermanagh Council byelection to try to prevent Sinn Féin taking the seat left vacant by the recent death of Joe Dodds, father of DUP finance minister Nigel Dodds.
The DUP is mindful of how the intervention of Jim Allister's Traditional Unionist Voice Party (TUV)recently prevented the party winning what was initially viewed as a safe council seat in Dromore in Co Down.
While the TUV is unlikely to stand in Fermanagh, the DUP is anxious to avoid a situation where Sinn Féin could cause embarrassment by winning the seat.
However, Ms Foster's decision to stand is at odds with comments she made to the Assembly at the end of March when she held the position of the minister of the environment. New First Minister Peter Robinson in a June reshuffle moved her to the post of the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Industry.
Referring then to a review of public administration - the plan to reduce the number of councils in Northern Ireland from 26 to 11 by 2011 - Ms Foster said she wanted to change the system where councillors could also be MLAs and/or MPs.
"I intend to work with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Office in order to introduce legislative proposals to end the dual mandate of those councillors who are also members of the Assembly and/or parliament," she said.
Initially, the DUP chose Thomas Hogg, a 20-year-old university student, to be co-opted to the seat in Enniskillen.
However, when the Ulster Unionist Party opposed the co-option, forcing a byelection, Mr Hogg withdrew his nomination, accusing the UUP of creating the "grave danger" that Sinn Féin could take the seat.
In the 2005 local government elections in the seven-seat Enniskillen ward, Sinn Féin won 2,486 votes while the DUP won 2,454 votes. The unionist/nationalist share of the vote in the ward respectively was 48.7 per cent and 46.7 per cent, with a former socialist candidate taking 4.7 per cent of the poll.
Sinn Féin has queried why Ms Foster, who resigned from the council when she became minister of the environment last year, was standing after her Assembly ministerial statement.
Said its council group leader Thomas O'Reilly: "Whatever about the infighting which is going on within unionism which has led to this byelection, and now led to the bizarre candidacy of Arlene Foster, a sitting minister, who has just resigned from the same council and who recently proposed legislation to end dual mandates, one thing is certain for the electors in Enniskillen - Sinn Féin is the only party who can capture this seat from the unionist parties."
A DUP spokesman said Ms Foster was standing to "stop Sinn Féin" getting the seat. While Ms Foster had made the statement about the dual mandate, the current circumstances were such that she was the strongest and ideal candidate for the party.
