Diane Forsythe is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

politician who is a Democratic Unionist Party

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

(MLA). She was elected as an MLA in the

2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three month ...

for South Down as the first female unionist to represent the area. Forsythe is the DUP's Spokesperson for Communities, Childcare and Early Years.

Political career

She unsuccessfully stood for election in the South Down Westminster constituency at the 2017 UK general election. She came in third place polling 8,867 votes, equating to 17.4% of the total vote. In April 2022, shortly before the 2022 Assembly election, all of the DUP's officers in South Down refused to endorse the party's candidate Forsythe and resigned from the DUP. They claimed that Forsythe was "imposed" on them by the DUP without proper consultation. The

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ga, Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ') is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it was reform ...

launched an investigation into "a defamatory message" being shared about Forsythe during the election campaign. On 5 May 2022, Diane Forsythe was elected as the new Democratic Unionist Party MLA for the South Down Constituency. Polling 6,497 first preference votes, and successful being elected on the 6th count with 11,073 votes. She became the first female unionist MLA for the constituency.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsythe, Diane Living people Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly 21st-century women politicians from Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party parliamentary candidates Year of birth missing (living people)