DUP's Edwin Poots wants to stand in South Down in assembly poll

Edwin Poots briefly led the DUP in 2021

Former DUP leader Edwin Poots has indicated he wants to leave his Lagan Valley constituency and stand in South Down, BBC News NI has learned.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are due to take place in May.

Mr Poots will be interviewed by party officers on Friday night along with another potential candidate.

It is understood the sitting DUP South Down assembly member, Jim Wells, has not been approved as a DUP candidate this time and has been deselected.

Mr Poots was elected as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley in 1998, and was appointed minister of agriculture, environment, and rural affairs in January 2020, having previously held several other ministerial posts.

In June of last year he resigned as leader of the DUP after just 21 days in the role.

He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who ran against Mr Poots for the leadership and was narrowly defeated in the wake of Arlene Foster's ousting from the top job.

Jim Wells and Edwin Poots are two major figures on the right of the DUP, which some people would call the fundamentalist wing.

In Edwin Poots' case, he's been an elected representative for a quarter of a century, for Jim Wells, it's been much longer.

First elected in the 1980s, he has been increasingly controversial and increasingly out of step with the party leadership.

He lost his job as health minister after controversial comments at an election rally, lost the party whip for the past four years and he has remained out of favour.

Nonetheless, he had made it clear he wanted to be the DUP candidate for South Down, which he has represented in the assembly since 1998, but I understand he won't be.

His life as a DUP MLA is over and that opens up an intriguing possibility in South Down.

Read more from Gareth here.

It is understood the other candidate for the DUP nomination in South Down is Diane Forsythe, the daughter of DUP councillor Glyn Hanna.

In 2020 Ms Forsythe quit the DUP over concerns about bullying and sexism.

She said she had been subjected to unacceptable remarks while she was in the party.

Her father and another DUP councillor for the area, Kathryn Owen, also left the party when Mr Poots became party leader.

But all three returned under the leadership of Sir Jeffrey.

Diane Forsythe and her father, Glyn Hanna, quit the party but later returned

The DUP currently has one other MLA in Lagan Valley, First Minister Paul Givan, while Sir Jeffrey has said he will be standing in the constituency.

In the last assembly election the other three seats were won by the Ulster Unionist Party, Alliance and the SDLP.