A FORMER Ulster Unionist councillor is to make a bid to be the party’s new Fermanagh-south Tyrone MLA following last week’s shock resignation of Neil Somerville.


Basil Johnston, who has been involved in local politics in some form or another for over 20 years, will put his case to party colleagues when they meet in Enniskillen tomorrow night (Friday).


He will contest the vacated seat alongside Alan Burke, a former chief executive of Dungannon District Council, Alastair Patterson, a quantity surveyor from Castlederg, and Ivor Paisley, who was formally a senior officer at Cookstown District Council. 


Mr. Johnston, who lives outside Enniskillen, missed out on a place on the new Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and is now is he hoping for a return to front-line politics. 


He told The Impartial Reporter: “I understand the commitment involved but I find myself in a different position than I was when I stood for council. Number one, I am not on the council at the moment. That was a difficult election for me with the boundary changes. Number two, I was looking after my disabled mother full time. She died last May and I no longer have that responsibility and would have the time to commit myself to the Assembly.”


Mr. Johnston says he has always been “politically active” and states that he has made “a big contribution” to politics in Fermanagh, and in South Tyrone when he worked for former MLA Tom Elliott.


He continued: “I was elected to Fermanagh District Council twice, I was on the Ulster Unionist party executive for 10 years and I am well briefed on policy formation and all the difficulties the party has been through in that time. I worked for Tom [Elliott], when he became an MLA, in Dungannon for two years and that gave me a lot of experience in dealing with issues in Dungannon and South Tyrone.”


Whoever wins will join running mate Rosemary Barton, an Erne North Councillor, in contesting the Assembly election.


“I am confident that in Fermanagh-south Tyrone the Ulster Unionist Party has every chance of taking a second seat. There is a move in that direction,” said Mr. Johnston.


Once party members make their decision tomorrow night, subjected to ratification, the candidate selected is expected to replace Mr. Somerville immediately. 


Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt told this newspaper that his primary concern has been Mr. Somerville “because events conspired against him as they do in life.”


“That led to an issue with stress and the best thing for Neil to do for himself and his family was to walk away,” he said.


Mr. Nesbitt said his colleagues in Fermanagh “have been working very hard” and “very imaginatively”. 


“You will not have to wait very long for the out-workings of that. I am excited. I think we will have a very good replacement who will join Rosemary Barton on a very good ticket for May 5,” he said.


“We have been looking at where we see growth and it is not a simple question of us against the DUP for unionist votes. There are seats currently held by non unionist members that we think we can win. 


“If that sounds like pie in the sky, we targeted a seat of a non unionist called Fermanagh-south Tyrone on May 7, 2015 and with the help of other unionists we took it. I think that gave unionists one of its biggest lifts,” said Mr. Nesbitt.