SF largest party in Belfast
Belfast North
By Sean O Tuama
Sinn Fein topped the poll for the first time in the history of
this constituency. The party's Gerry Kelly gained one seat with
his colleague, Martina McIlkenny, losing out for a second by just
150 votes. However the party's Director of Elections for north
Belfast, Sean Oliver, was in jubilant mood. ``This election shows
we are well placed to win another one or two council seats in the
area and have the potential to take the Westminster seat as
well,'' he said. He added that a major voter registration drive
was needed to ensure that the many unregistered Republicans in
the district could contribute to Sinn Fein's rising fortunes in
the future.
Commenting on the spurious accusation by the SDLP that they too
missed out on a second seat because SF voters were not
transferring to them, Oliver said, ``What damaged them the most
was their appeal to Nationalists to give their preferences to
Unionist and Loyalist candidates rather than to Sinn Fein. That
policy did not go down well on the doorsteps.''
The shock of this poll was the number of Alliance transfers to
unionists which eventually secured a seat for the ``No'' unionist
Frazer Agnew in the final count.
The SDLP may have been aware that they would do badly in the
constituency judging by their behaviour in polling stations in
the area on election day when they challenged people on the most
absurd basis. In one incident in the Holy Family polling station,
Newington, an SDLP election worker complained about a woman
trying to help her son, who has a severe learning difficulty, to
fill in his ballot paper.
In the Holy Cross polling stations in Ardoyne an SDLP polling
agent challenged so many people in such an aggressive manner that
many of the people in the long queues which formed were quite
apprehensive. On one occasion she challenged the right of a young
woman with Down's syndrome to receive assistance, and on another
she objected to a wheelchair-bound woman receiving help getting
into the polling booth to cast her vote. She also complained
loudly to the election officials demanding to know if it was
within the rules for a Sinn Fein polling agent to be chewing gum.
It is. At one point the presiding officer warned her that she
would be ejected from the station if she did not temper her
behaviour.
The refusal of the SDLP to enter into an electoral pact with Sinn
Fein undoubtedly cost the Nationalist community a crucial third
seat in an election which saw a significantly increased
Nationalist vote throughout the constituency. In the end, Sinn
Fein and the SDLP gained one seat each with the rest going to
loyalist candidates, three of whom were elected without reaching
the quota.
West Belfast
By Ned Kelly
The election in West Belfast produced an unprecedented mandate
for Sinn Fein. They took four of the six available Assembly seats
by securing 6 out of every 10 votes, a political mandate up 3% on
the May 1997 Westminster election that saw Gerry Adams returned
as MP for the area.
Alongside Gerry Adams, Bairbre De Brun, Alex Maskey and Sue
Ramsey were also elected. Lisburn councillor Michael Ferguson
missed out on a fifth Sinn Fein seat by 2,500 votes. With Sinn
Fein getting 1000 less than the last poll and over 700 spoiled
votes with X's marked against the five Sinn Fein candidates, this
last seat is clearly within reach. One source confirmed that the
implications for the SDLP in any future poll is that they will be
reduced to just one representative; their vote dropped by over
13%.
On the day of the count in Belfast's city hall it became apparent
that division in the unionist vote would deny them any
representation, despite 7,900 registered votes in the Shankhill
area. By 10.30am, the PUP's Hugh Smyth could be heard muttering
``it don't look good'', as the intra-unionist transfers from the
DUP, UKUP and UUP collapsed.
In this constituency also the SDLP mades spurious challenges
against voters on polling day. One SDLP election agent challenged
a woman in De Salle school in mid-Andersonstown, only to be told
by an SDLP worker, ``in the name of God, she's my neighbour and
votes for us.''
As the count unfolded and word of the spread of preferences
seeped out it became apparent that not only was a large chunk
(29%) of Joe Hendron's vote failing to transfer to Attwood but
that hundreds of votes, significantly from the middle class Upper
Andersonstown area, had preferences spread between Adams and
Hendron, with Attwood well down the ballot.
One phenomena underlined Sinn Fein's massive success in West
Belfast; in no other Western country is any other political
organisation reaching out and offering a voice to the working
class or disadvantaged. One senior Sinn Fein election worker
said, ``as participatory democracy declines, especially in areas
of economic decline, Sinn Fein is able to offer a route for
direct democratic participation. The key is the sophistication,
astuteness and political awareness of the electorate.'' He also
said that one of the main features of the short election campaign
was that local activists, not necessarily Sinn Fein members, had
been active on the ground and tuned into the issues long before
the the central election directorates. He added, ``the challenge
now is to develop participation on such a scale into community
activism.''
Belfast East
By Sean O Tuama
Sinn Fein's Joe O'Donnell increased the party's vote in the area
by over a hundred when he received 917 first preferences.
O'Donnell was very pleased with the result. ``It puts us in a
stronger position for a seat in the next city council elections,''
he said.
Although the DUP's Peter Robinson gained over 11,000 votes to be
elected on the first count, his party colleague Sammy Wilson
received only 633 first preference votes and it took him until
the eleventh count before he was elected.
Belfast South
By Sean O Tuama
Sinn Fein's Sean Hayes gained 2,605 first preferences. The party
had been hopeful of a seat here but party workers at the City
Hall count were pleased at the strengthened Republican vote, up
by more than 5% from the last city council election.
A despondent young DUP election worker said during the count that
their voters were in need of ``political education.'' His comment
was related to the fact that hundreds of first preference DUP
votes were spoiled because the voters had written ``No'' beside the
name of the SF candidate on the ballot paper.
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