More stick needed to persuade the DU(P)nkeys?

Following on from posts from my two compadres Ignited and Chekov:

Questions to ponder for the New Year:

1.When will we see the next inside track from Stephen Dempster?
2.When will the Unionist Academy open its doors?
3.When will the DUP nominate its candidate for the European Union elections?

I can’t give you an answer to question 1 or 2 as both concepts seem, like the hedgehog at the bottom of our garden, to have taken a nap for the winter. Question 3 is more intriguing.

The DUP will need a selection meeting first to choose their candidate. But to have a selection meeting, first you need willing and able folk to select and that’s the problem. The selection meeting expected for late January has been postponed indefinitely, presumably hoping that there is some kind of response to a letter from the party secretary, Michelle McIlveen which was sent to DUP members in December, encouraging all and sundry to apply. There can’t have been a Flood of the Willing as the period for application has now been extended until 23rd January.

Interesting then that the Belfast Telegraph yesterday reports:

The DUP is to announce its candidate for the European election this month — but it is already launching salvos in the direction of its main opponent.

Even in the best of circumstances, leaving a very tight timescale, you’d have thought (And I would have thought their "main opponent" should be Sinn Fein)

As I’ve reported before:

It was rumoured Peter Robinson was having difficulty persuading one of his party’s big names to fight the June election.

This fuelled claims the DUP might ask a leading figure to contest the seat, on the understanding they could hand the unglamorous posting to an underling at a later date.

But in one fell swoop Mr Robinson denied the notion and took a swipe at his nemesis.
“Of course not,” he said of the conspiracy theories.

“Put it this way, the Democratic Unionist Party when they put Jim Allister forward were putting somebody who was virtually unknown, because we have a party vote.

“It was certainly no Jim Allister personality vote. In the absence of a personality it would be hard to have a personality vote. It was a party vote that got him elected.”

In which case, if true, they could put up the proverbial donkey and still steam home. So why the lack of interest amongst the donkeys party faithful?
You'd think the EU parliament wasn’t that bad a gig for a donkey aspiring politician; after all it has a helluva a lot more power over our lives than Stormont and the expenses are not all that bad either apparently.