Biggest Northern Ireland unionist party endorses new leader

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party has formally endorsed Jeffrey Donaldson as its new leader

LONDON -- Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party formally endorsed Jeffrey Donaldson as its new leader on Saturday, a position that will likely see him become the country's first minister. Donaldson received 32 votes of the party’s 36-strong electoral college, which is made up of the party's 28 lawmakers in the Northern Ireland assembly and its eight members of parliament in London. The 58-year-old, who leads the party's caucus in the U.K. Parliament in London, was the sole candidate in the election, which follows a chaotic two months for Northern Ireland’s largest party. Donaldson had narrowly lost in the previous election last month to Edwin Poots, who resigned last week after colleagues revolted over a deal to appoint new leaders to the Protestant-Catholic power-sharing administration. Poots, a social and religious conservative, didn't attend the meeting on Saturday.