Republican News · Thursday 6 March 2003

SDLP in electoral malpractice row

Sinn Féin Derry City Council leader Gearóid Ó hEara, has called on the SDLP to come clean over claims that an SDLP councillor was involved in electoral malpractice which resulted in the row that lead to the resignation of the then SDLP chairperson in Derry, Gerry Murray.

This latest embarrassment to hit the SDLP in Derry emerged at a Derry City Council meeting on Tuesday 25 February, during a debate on the controversial new electoral register, when the DUP's Gregory Campbell accused Sinn Féin of electoral malpractice. Defending the party, Gearóid Ó hEara maintained that the SDLP was the only party to be found guilty of electoral fraud and he drew attention to the controversial resignation of Gerry Murray in 1993. Ó hEara also stated that Murray resigned over allegations that the SDLP was involved in electoral fraud prior to the 1993 council elections.

These remarks brought an angry reaction from the SDLP's Pat Ramsey, who said that Murray "jumped before he was thrown".

However, in an interview with the local Derry Journal newspaper, Gerry Murray said he was appalled at Ramsey's remarks and reiterated his 1993 claim that local party (SDLP) members were involved in electoral malpractice.

"I was very disturbed by the actions of electoral malpractice that involved SDLP councillors", Murray told the Journal.

He went on: "At a meeting of the District Executive of the SDLP, a councillor produced hundreds of confidential applications for postal votes, which he said had been given to him by an official in the electoral office. Such actions gave me no alternative than to resign as chairman. To have continued in office would have been to endorse such actions and would have besmirched my own personal and professional integrity,"

At the time, Murray made a full public statement in The Journal regarding the alleged incident, while he said a full report was made to the Chief Electoral Officer, the SDLP leader John Hume and the RUC.

"At no stage was there a rebuttal of the facts, which I outlined, by anyone within the SDLP," he said.

Sinn Féin council leader Ó hEara said the statement by Murray raises very serious issues regarding the SDLP's involvement in election malpractice, adding that the SDLP and the electoral office have serious questions to answer.

"The people of Derry have the right to know if the SDLP councillor who Murray referred to is still a member of the SDLP and is he still a sitting councillor," said Ó hEara. "Mr Murray said that councillor Pat Ramsey is fully aware of the facts, is he (Ramsey) going to make these facts known to the people of Derry and if not will Mr Murray make those facts known?"