A council election candidate for the DUP was "threatened and physically intimidated" while handing out pamphlets in Derry, party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson revealed.
The DUP claimed Dawn Huggins, a candidate for Causeway Coast and Glens council, was informed that she wasn't welcome in the area, after the leaflets were forcibly taken from out of her hands, Belfast Live reported.
Sir Jeffrey labelled the man a "bully" and stressed there were no "no-go areas" for his candidates in the North.
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He said yesterday: "One of our candidates standing in the Bann electoral area for Causeway Coast and Glens, Dawn Huggins, was handing out some leaflets outside Macosquin Primary School this morning when a very large gentleman, well over 6ft, approached her and tore the leaflets out of her hand.
"There was significant physical intimidation of our candidate. She was threatened, told to get out of the area."
Sir Jeffery added: "I want to be absolutely clear and on behalf of Dawn say this: there are no no-go areas for our candidates in Northern Ireland. This is a democratic process, elections are free and fair in Northern Ireland and candidates are entitled to put forward their perspectives."
The DUP leader called for intimidation of politicians, particularly women, to stop, saying there was no place in society for this behaviour.
He said the matter had been reported to the PSNI.
"It is difficult to attract people to stand for public office and this kind of behaviour simply doesn't help," he said after the incident.
A PSNI spokesman said a man aged in his 70s who was arrested following the report of an assault in the Macosquin area on Thursday afternoon has been issued with a Community Resolution Notice.
Counting is under way for the Northern Ireland local elections after polls closed at 10pm on Thursday evening.
Counting across 11 sites for each of the 11 councils began this Friday morning and is expected to continue into Saturday. The elections use the single transferable vote system where voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Some 462 council seats are being contested at this year’s election, with Northern Ireland councils are responsible for setting rates, planning, waste collection as well as leisure services and parks.
While it is a local election, during the current deadlock at Stormont many parties will take performance at the polls as indicative of support for their wider platforms.
Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill said the election was an opportunity for voters to re-affirm last year’s assembly election, while DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson asked unionist voters to unite behind the party to “get back to winning ways”.
The Stormont assembly has not been operational for over a year due to the DUP’s boycott of the powersharing institutions in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.
At last year’s assembly election, Sinn Fein overtook the DUP to become the largest party at Stormont for the first time.
Sinn Fein currently has 105 councillors and put forward 162 candidates in this election.
The DUP is currently the largest party in local government with 122 councillors, and ran 152 candidates.
The Alliance party, who became the third biggest party at the last Assembly election, will hope to build on the 53 councillors they secured at the last local election in 2019. The cross-community party fielded 110 candidates in 78 out of the 80 district electoral areas.
The Ulster Unionist Party ran 101 candidates, and will be hoping to secure numbers after losses in previous Assembly and local government elections. The UUP currently has 75 councillors.
A party also hoping to maintain numbers is the SDLP, who have seen losses in previous elections. The party currently has 59 councillors and ran 86 candidates in this election.
The TUV ran 46 candidates, the Green Party 37, Aontu 19 and People Before Profit fielded 16.
Belfast City Council is the largest local government area in Northern Ireland with 60 councillors to be elected.
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