FOYLE MLA Colum Eastwood has this afternoon been elected the new leader of the SDLP.
He is the third person from Derry since its foundation to lead the party following in the huge footsteps of John Hume and current Foyle MP Mark Durkan.
The party overwhelmingly supported his candidacy at its annual conference held in Armagh yesterday and today.
A total of 314 delegates were eligible to vote.
The first to reach the finishing line of 158 votes would be the winner.
But the bookies favourite – 32-year-old Colum – won the contest with a majority of 39.
The final tally was Eastwood 172 votes to Alasdair McDonnell’s 133.
Fearghal McKinney has been elected as the new deputy leader, one of McDonnell’s strongest allies in the party.
Colum, who is the leader of the SDLP on Derry City and Strabane District Council, will now set about appointing his own ‘kitchen cabinet’ of people around him to lead the party into next May’s Assembly elections.
During the ‘SDLP 15’ conference an emergency motion was carried to extend sympathy and solidarity with people of Paris after last night’s terror attacks.
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