Friday, 8 March 2013

Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy wins Mid Ulster by-election - BBC News

The announcement of the result of the Mid Ulster by-election

Sinn Fein have held on to the Mid Ulster seat at Westminster left vacant by Martin McGuinness when he stepped down as MP at the end of last year.

Francie Molloy polled 17,462 votes (46.93%), which meant he won with a reduced majority.

Mr Molloy had been deputy speaker at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Joint unionist candidate Nigel Lutton was second on 12,781 votes. The SDLP's Patsy McGlone polled 6,478, with the Alliance Party's Eric Bullick on 487.

Analysis

All the parties will take some heart from Mid Ulster, the by-election with one winner but no real losers.

Sinn Fein will take the win, albeit with a vote down by just over 5% for the new MP Francie Molloy. His predecessor Martin McGuinness blamed complacency in his party's voters because the media wrote off the challengers.

The unionist parties believe the controversial plan to stand aside and back an agreed candidate, in Nigel Lutton, worked - increasing the combined unionist vote to just over 34%.

Although he came third, the SDLP's Patsy McGlone succeeded in increasing his party's actual vote in a reduced overall poll.

And in the Alliance's first election since the flag row began, Eric Bullick increased its vote from 397 to 487.

Sinn Fein MPs have a long-standing abstentionist policy from Westminster, with its other four current MPs opting not to sit in the House of Commons, but continuing to represent their constituents by lobbying the government.

After being elected, Mr Molloy said: "I would like to thank my colleague and comrade Martin McGuinness for the work that he has done over the last 15 years in moving Mid Ulster forward.

"Martin will be a hard act to follow, I understand that. But we will try our best to do that, we will continue to build the process within it and work with everyone.

"I want to represent all the people of Mid Ulster, not just those who actually voted for me, not just the Sinn Fein support within the area, but all the people of Mid Ulster."

The election pitted the Unionist candidate, whose father was killed by the IRA, against Mr Molloy, who was accused - by DUP MP David Simpson, using parliamentary privilege - of being a suspect in his murder.

Mr Molloy vehemently denied the claims, challenging Mr Simpson to repeat them without the legal protection afforded by Parliament.

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