Cedric Wilson

Cedric Wilson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Strangford
In office
25 June 1998  26 November 2003
Preceded by New Creation
Succeeded by George Ennis
Personal details
Born (1948-06-06) 6 June 1948
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality British
Political party NI Unionist Party
UK Unionist Party (until 1999)

Cedric Wilson (born 6 June 1948) is a politician in Northern Ireland.

Born in Belfast, Wilson became the director of a private nursing home. In 1981, he was elected to Castlereagh Borough Council for the Democratic Unionist Party, a post he held until 1989. During this time, he became known for his role in campaigning against the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

At the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Wilson stood unsuccessfully in Belfast South.

In 1996, he joined the UK Unionist Party (UKUP), and was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum under the top-up system in 1996. When the Forum was replaced by the Northern Ireland Assembly, Wilson won a seat in Strangford outright, initially placing third out of twenty-two candidates.

In 1999, Wilson and three of the four other UKUP Assembly members left the party to form the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP). They argued that they should not quit their Assembly seats should Sinn Féin take up its seats in the without prior Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning of weapons. Wilson became the party leader, and in the 2001 general election, he contested the Strangford seat, but came bottom of the poll, with only 1.9% of the vote.

This poor showing was reflected in the 2003 Assembly election, when Wilson initially placed only tenth out of thirteen candidates, and all the NIUP members lost their seats.

Wilson remained leader of the NIUP, but the party is currently inactive. Wilson stood as an independent candidate in the Strangford constituency at the 2007 Assembly election where he polled 305 votes (0.8%), thus finishing last out of the fifteen candidates.

References

Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by
New creation
MLA for Strangford
1998 - 2003
Succeeded by
George Ennis
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