Westminster '97
FOYLE CANDIDATE MITCHEL MCLAUGHLIN
Sinn Fein National Chairperson
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Mitchel McLaughlin, a member of the Party's National Executive (Ard Chomhairle), is currently Sinn Fein's National Chairperson. In this role he plays a major part in overseeing the political development of the Party and is in charge of its overall functioning.
Elected to the Derry City Council in 1985, Mitchel is now the leader of the Sinn Fein group on that body.
Mitchel was first politically active in the Civil Rights Association in 1968. He was also a leading member of the National H-Blocks Committee (a committee organised to campaign around the prison protests of the late 70's and early 80's).
He has played a central role in formulating Sinn Fein's current peace strategy and was instrumental in the drawing up of our two peace documents, Scenario for Peace (1989) and Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland (1992). He is one of Sinn Fein's main spokespersons on the peace process and travels widely to speak on behalf of the party. He was elected as a Sinn Fein peace negotiator in last yearís Forum elections.
Mitchel McLaughlin was selected to fight the Foyle constituency in the forthcoming Westminster election.
CONSTITUENCY PROFILE
Foyle
| Party | 1992 | 1996 |
| SF | 9,149 | 11,618 |
| SDLP | 26,710 | 19,997 |
| DUP | 13,705 | 5,054 |
John Hume seems unassailable here and will be returned for his fourth term in Westminster. The battle then is for second place. In 1992 the DUP were over 4,000 votes ahead of Sinn Fein but the Sinn Fein vote in 1996 was greater than the combined unionist vote resulting in no forum seats for unionist candidates.