SF councillor Duffy ‘selected to run in Foyle at general election’

SANDRA Duffy has been selected by Sinn Féin as its candidate to contest the Foyle constituency in the general election, it’s understood.

A former mayor, councillor Duffy was up against Tony Doherty, chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust, at a recent selection convention, according to sources.

Mr Doherty’s father Patrick was one of 13 people shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

The local party has made its decision, but this will have to be ratified centrally before an official announcement is made.

Sources said Ms Duffy won by “a convincing margin”.

Sinn Féin took 144 seats (up 39 from 2019) in the council elections last year.

Derry City and Strabane District returned a record 18 out of 18 candidates for the party.

Ms Duffy romped home with 2,164 votes — the highest number of first preference votes in the council area.

The SDLP came out with 10 councillors, a loss of one from 2019.

That has dropped to eight over the past week after two councillors resigned over the handling of the selection of new mayor Lilian Barr.

As the two largest parties in the constituency, the SDLP and Sinn Féin normally go head-tohead in Foyle.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood took the seat in 2019 with 17,110 votes more than Sinn Féin’s Elisha Mccallion — overturning her 169-vote majority.

Different factors were at play back then. Sinn Féin had pulled down the Stormont institutions in January 2017 over the DUP’S handling of the RHI scandal.

The republican party will be keen to wrest the seat back from the SDLP.

The party launched a review of its operations in the constituency at the end of 2020.

Veteran Martina Anderson, who had served as an MLA, junior minister and MEP, and party colleague Karen Mullan announced the following May they wouldn’t be contesting the next Assembly election.

It is expected to be a close contest whenever the Westminster poll comes around.

The general election must be held by January 28, 2025, but is highly likely to be called by under-fire Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before the end of this year.