Willie Clarke to resign South Down seat

South Down MLA Willie Clarke has resigned his seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Sinn Fein representative cited his need to concentrate on his work as a Down District councillor as the reason for the resignation.

He said, “It has been an honour to represent the people of South Down in the assembly and I would like to thank everyone who has assisted me in that endeavour. Sinn Fein has a policy of eradicating double jobbing in terms of public representation and in view of this policy I have opted to give up my assembly seat in order to concentrate on the local council.”

He concluded by saying, “This was a very difficult decision to make and in conjunction with my family I have decided that continuing my work through the local council is the best option for myself.”

Mr Clarke has held the seat since 2003 having been preceded by Eamon O’Neill of the SDLP.

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Posted by Declan McAteer on Feb 28 2012. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry