NI Local Elections (containts scores)

Victor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/nicouncil/html/main.stm

After 178 of 582 councillors elected.

Party 				Seats 	Seats +/- 
Democratic Unionist Party 	70 	+3  
Sinn Fein 			39 	+3  
Ulster Unionist Party 		29 	-4 
Social Democratic Labour Party 	27 	-1 
Alliance Party 			8 	+1

Click on the names on the map for individual councils.

Quantum

If anyone thought that the people of Northern Ireland were moving in the direction of normal, then this election proves the opposite.

The six counties are clearly inhabited by a crowd of extremist, bigoted nutters and I hope to god we never unite with them in my lifetime.

bonkey

Umm...has the number of seats changed?

I'm looking at the URL provided by Vic above, and the +/- figures add up to a total of +16, with 3 seats left undecided.

So were 13 new seats created?

Or are the figures somewhat messed up, because with 579 seats allegedly decided, only 559 seem to be listed.

bonkey

Or am I just incapable of mental arithmetic?

shltter

i dont think thye have listed various independents

A Dub in Glasgo

The DUP have certainly had an excellent election. SF have had a good one but it will rankle with them that they have relinguished the title of 'Biggest party in Belfast'.

Interesting, the DUP guy who 'withdrew' from the election got elected. Interesting times in Ballymena where the DUP control the council and SF got their first councillor there... the councillor is a woman as well!

A Dub in Glasgo

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

The DUP have certainly had an excellent election. SF have had a good one but it will rankle with them that they have relinguished the title of 'Biggest party in Belfast'.

They had that distinction though from the split unionist vote didnt they?
Ie, the move from UUP increased the DUP numbers to a level past the SF numbers in this election.

What is the exact state of play now in Belfast City hall. It was the case that Alliance held the balance of power, is that still the case?

*edit* I see that still is the case

A Dub in Glasgo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/nicouncil/html/1.stm

Yep, it was the split Unionist vote although SF lost a seat to the Alliance party which would have made it equal.

That was in the short strand wasnt it.
Politics is very local.

Next question, did the fall of 1000 votes or so in Alex Maskey's vote in South Belfast(compared tothe Assembly ellection of 03 which had the same turnout) follow through to the total SF local council vote in that area? ie was that also down a thousand? or did it stay the same?
It would explain if there was a tactical vote for McDonnell.

A Dub in Glasgo

Earthman wrote:

That was in the short strand wasnt it.
Politics is very local.

It does include Short Strand. I have heard that SF polled stongly in the Short Strand itself but missed out on the seat because the majority of the SDLP transfers went to the Alliance Party after the SDLP candidate was eliminated. SF narrowly took the seat from the Alliance Party last time.

Next question, did the fall of 1000 votes or so in Alex Maskey's vote in South Belfast(compared tothe Assembly ellection of 03 which had the same turnout) follow through to the total SF local council vote in that area? ie was that also down a thousand? or did it stay the same?
It would explain if there was a tactical vote for McDonnell.

Need to look at that one later. Maskey was the sole SF candidate and was elected on the 1st count

cdebru

Earthman wrote:

That was in the short strand wasnt it.
Politics is very local.

Next question, did the fall of 1000 votes or so in Alex Maskey's vote in South Belfast(compared tothe Assembly ellection of 03 which had the same turnout) follow through to the total SF local council vote in that area? ie was that also down a thousand? or did it stay the same?
It would explain if there was a tactical vote for McDonnell.

the figures seem to show that there was a reaction in east and south belfast

in Pottinger in east belfast SF lost about 300 votes on a lower turnout so share was only down slightly
however the SDLP gained over 200 on the same lower turnout and when the SDLP candidate was eliminated the bulk of her votes went to the alliance only 156 went to SF

in south belfast although maskey topped the poll and had a surplus even with the votes for the other in SF candidate in balmoral they only had the 2800 that maskey got in the westminister vote
so they seem to have fallen back to where they were in 2001 about 1000 votes less

also interestingly there are about 7000 fewer voters on the register in those 3 wards compared to 4 years ago
from about 60,000 to about 53,000

jman0

A small but sweet victory for SDLP in East Derry

The SDLP won a small but sweet victory in East Derry when edging out Sinn Fein for third place. There was never any doubt about where the seat was going: the DUP's Gregory Campbell easily beat his UUP rival David McClarty in this unionist citadel. But what little drama the campaign had was supplied by the sub-plot among the nationalist candidates.
A small group of SDlP workers cheered when the returning officer revealed that John Dallat had held off SF's Billy Leonard by 368 votes. There were even tears in the eyes of one, but the words of Dallat's election agent Eamon Mullan were bitter: "I hope that's the end of his [Leonard's] political career," he said. "Northern Ireland does not need people like him". Leonard is usually described as having a "colourful" background. A Protestant former lay-preacher and an ex-member of both the Orange Order and the RUC Reserve, he has come a long way in what he calls "the process of questioning the British small-u unionist identity into which I was born".
The process began in the late 1970s, and by the 1990s led him to become an SDLP councillor and Dallat's election agent. But it was his last move, to Sinn Fein in January 2004, that proved the most controversial.
Leonard conceded yesterday that at least two of his former SDLP colleagues, including Dallat, no longer speak to him. Dallat made no overt reference to Leonard in his address, although he pointedly thanked SDLP workers "who have stood by their principles during these difficult times".

Frank McNally
In Ballymony

7/05/2005
page 2 of Supplement

How wrong the SDLP are: Northern Ireland needs more Billy Leonard's and fair play to SF for standing him as a candidate. Puts a rather big hole in SF bashers labeling them sectarian now doesn't it.

bonkey

jman0 wrote:

Puts a rather big hole in SF bashers labeling them sectarian now doesn't it.

No, it doesn't.

If they had a lot more Leonards around, then maybe it would, but one swallow does not a summer make.

jc

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

cdebru

jman0 wrote:

How wrong the SDLP are: Northern Ireland needs more Billy Leonard's and fair play to SF for standing him as a candidate. Puts a rather big hole in SF bashers labeling them sectarian now doesn't it.

he won a seat on coleraine council