The times they are a'changing
Sinn Féin made gains in 12 councils as the party vote surged to a
record 16.9% share of first preferences.
By Peadar Whelan
THE SURGE OF VOTES TO SINN FEIN IN last Wednesday's local
government elections has lifted the nationalist political boat to
a peak never reached before. Sinn Féin made gains in 12 councils
as the party vote surged to a record 16.9% share of first
preferences.
In council areas throughout the North the swell of support for
the party paid off for nationalists who gained overall control of
six councils west of the Bann and saw history made in Belfast
where for the first time the unionist parties lost control of
Belfast City council.
With 13 seats on Belfast City Council and again the highest vote
share in Belfast at 27.7% (up over 4% on the 1993 total), Sinn
Féin voters in the city reaffirmed the party's number one status,
even though the UUP still have the same number of councillors
achieved by a lower vote share of 20.7%. This is created in part
by the lower turnout in some wards. The quota to elect a
councillor in Upper Falls was 2,331 compared to 1,603 in
Victoria, a ward which elected one Alliance and six Unionist
councillors.
However, there are some questions to be asked about the share out
of council seats in some of the unionist wards. Why, for example,
does a ward like Balmoral with a total electorate of 22,959 elect
six councillors while Upper Falls with an electorate of 22,769
elects only five councillors. It seems that an extra 190 voters
gets you more representation in Balmoral than it does in Falls.
Belfast Court which has an electorate of only 17,243 elects five
councillors the same number as Upper Falls where there the
electorate is over 5,500 votes larger. Belfast Court returned
five unionist councillors.
The party made dramatic progress winning 74 seats in 17 council
areas, up a staggering 23 and although the majority of Sinn Féin
gains were against the SDLP the new seats won in areas such as
South Belfast and the staunchly middle class Castle ward in North
Belfast demonstrates that the party's analysis and appeal has
spread out of its traditional heartlands.
Even in the predominantly loyalist Ballymoney council Martin
O'Neill took a seat while in Strabane the Sinn Féin vote
increased by 79%; in Glenelly new boy Martin Conway romped home
with 1,144 votes, a phenomenal 149% increase. The huge swing to
Sinn Féin knocked the unionists for six and means a council which
has for eight years been notoriously gerrymandered reverts to
nationalist control on a 10 -6 count.
Cookstown council now has five Sinn Féin councillors, up two from
1993 and is another council that may for the first time in its
history have a nationalist leader. In a reverse of last time out
when there was a 9 - 7 unionist majority there is now a 9 -7
nationalist majority.
Sinn Féin is the biggest nationalist grouping in Fermanagh
council, a position that reflects the efforts of Gerry McHugh in
last year's Forum election and the Westminster election on 1 May
where he out-polled the SDLP. However, with the
unionist/nationalist divide at eleven each Progressive Socialist
Davy Kettyles, ex-Workers Party, holds the balance of power.
In terms of the Sinn Féin/SDLP contest a dramatic swing to Sinn
Féin where the party took three seats off the SDLP in Derry, the
SDLP flagship council, and three more in Newry and Mourne, while
in both Down and Armagh councils Sinn Féin took a pair of seats
from the SDLP. In Dungannon Sinn Féin gained more first
preference votes than the SDLP.
Sadly the SDLP has refused to accept the verdict of the ballot
box, preferring to criminalise the Sinn Féin turnout, saying the
swing to Sinn Féin was attributable to vote stealing and
electoral malpractice.
To continue in that vein the SDLP will miss a great opportunity
to reinforce these nationalist gains, especially at a time when
unionist dominance is at its lowest point.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams speaking to reporters at the
Belfast City Hall count put the result in context. He said
``There's a new era. We are going in with a very clear view that
the institutions of local government should reflect the mandates
of all the parties. As far as Belfast is concerned, it's the
beginning of a new Belfast when all of the citizens should have
the ownership of all its institutions''.
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