Everything Ulster - Election 2005

Everything Ulster's Election 2005 coverage comes to an official end today with the launch of the new site at www.EverythingUlster.com where I've just set up a new hosting account.

At the new site, Everything Ulster will continue be a home for my own personal slant on happenings in Northern Ireland and I hope the site continues to grow the way it has done up until now. I couldn't have done it without the support of the commentators, so a big 'Thank you' to everyone who has contributed so far. I'll see you all at the new site.

It's been an interesting experience for me, this election. Despite the decline of the Ulster Unionists, it hasn't been an unmitigated disaster. I've learned quite a lot about blogging and about the different candidates through the Westminster Focus posts, taking a look at each constituency in turn.

I always said that once the election was over I'd continue and try to maybe grow the site. In that spirit, I'll be relaunching it and all the Election 2005 posts (any post up to now) will be moved, so you'll need to update your bookmarks. There'll also be new RSS feeds for the new site.

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While 9 DUP MPs made the journey to Westminster for the opening of the new Parliament today, Lady Sylvia Hermon returned alone. Re-elected as MP for North Down, she's the only Ulster Unionist elected to this Parliament. Lady Hermon still hasn't decided whether or not to stand for the Ulster Unionist Party leadership and seems to be genuinely having trouble weighing the responsibility of caring for her husband, who suffers from Alzheimers, with an apparent "sense of duty".

She was interviewed by the BBC today and took the opportunity to say (much to the disgust, I'm sure, of my friends over at A Tangled Web) that the Ulster Unionist party must become more liberal and 'put water between' themselves and the DUP.

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Finally, all the results from Northern Ireland's council elections are in. I have to admit that despite the DUP's successes on Friday, I wasn't expecting them to do quite so well as they did in the local government election! But fair play to them, congratulations. Now lets take a look at what it really means...

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Ulster Unionist David Archer Junior has been elected to Lisburn City Council despite withdrawing from the race a couple of weeks ago due to a late night "incident" in the council offices.

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MUCH to my own personal distaste, the DUP are soaring ahead in the local government elections in Northern Ireland with 170 seats (50 seats have still to be declared). Now that we're into the second day of polling the DUP have outperformed the already optimistic expectations of most pundits.

Participants in Nicholas Whyte's predictions competition expected the DUP to win, on average, just under 160 seats. The Ulster Unionists were expected to get around 130 and maybe even beat Sinn Fein into 3rd place but this doesn't seem to be the case. Sinn Fein are 13 seats in front of the UUP with 116 to the UUP's 103, so pending a late swing it looks like being a disappointing 3rd for the Ulster Unionists.

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As expected, the DUP are early leaders in the council elections in Northern Ireland with Sammy Wilson among the members already elected.

In Belfast, Sinn Fein already have 6 councillors elected and the SDLP and DUP 1 each.

Throughout Northern Ireland, with 196 seats declared, the DUP have 76, Sinn Fein coming in 2nd with 44, UUP 34 and SDLP 29. The Alliance currently have 9 (2 in Newtownabbey) and I'm hoping Tom Ekin will get in in Belfast too!

Check out the BBC's regular updates.

I just caught a discussion this morning on BBC Radio 5 about a rally being held today in Berlin by neo-Nazi/neo-fascist groups. It's a bit sickening really but one thing that stuck in my mind was a comment from a German citizen there who was disgusted that some people in Germany were trying to portray the Nazis as victims! That's right, the Nazis are the new MOPEs. It seems that it doesn't matter whether you're in Northern Ireland or Germany, victimhood is central to nationalist socialist mentality.

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I'm sure cheers will be going up from DUP supporters all over Northern Ireland following David Trimble's announcement today that he was resigning from he Ulster Unionist Party. Trimble blamed republicans for the state of his party following yesterday's disastrous election results.

Announcing his resignation, Trimble said "I am pleased to have had the privilege of leading what I regard as the best and most democratic political grouping in Ulster."

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As promised last night, here's my thoughts on yeserday's results. Apologies for not getting more on the site, but as I explained, I was otherwise engaged from about 6:30 that night until late on. This will not be scientific, but if you want number crunching, the BBC has a summary of results.

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Lady Sylvia Hermon has become the first UUP MP elected in this election. She won over 50% of the vote in a seat in which some thought she was under threat from the DUP. This despite a lower turnout than last time by some 5%.

Her share of the vote is down just 5% with the DUP standing. The Alliance's David Alderdice also polled 7.6% to take third place and Julian Robertson polled 2.5% for the Conservatives.

Full results from the BBC.

Pat Doherty has claimed West Tyrone for Sinn Fein.

The DUP came in 3rd behind Kieran Deeney, the independent candidate, as the Ulster Unionist vote seems to have collapsed.

Full results from the BBC.

This is my last post tonight as I'm going out - I'll do a post-mortem tomorrow.

Michelle Gildernew is back in for Fermanagh South Tyrone with 18,638 votes. At the same time, the DUP's Arlene Foster (14,056 votes) beat Ulster Unionist Tom Elliot (8,869 votes) quite convincingly.

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Another relatively safe DUP seat was won by Nigel Dodds. His turnout was up 4.5% to 13,935 while Gerry Kelly was 2nd with 28.6%. The Ulster Unionist vote seems to have collapsed below an already low total to 7.1% (down 4.9%).

Full results at the BBC.

Gregory Campbell won East Londonderry with 15,225 votes. Billy Leonard, Sinn Fein's "prize peeler" only polled 5,709 behind the Ulster Unionist candidate on 7,498.

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SAMMY Wilson has taken East Antrim from Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs by over 7,000 votes. No big shock as his was one of their top targets.

Some good news in that Sean Neeson's Alliance vote has crept up by 2.8% to 4,869 (15.3%).

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Peter Robinson got in in East Belfast, again no shock. Both the DUP and UUP share of the vote rose 5% and the Alliance's fell by 5%. The Conservatives' Alan Greer polled only 434 votes.

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Paisley has got in in North Antrim. No shock there. What is surprising is that Sinn Fein have moved up into second ahead of the UUP!

It just shows that fundamentalist nutcases will always beat out all reason in Northern Ireland politics.

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Alasdair McDonnell has come through the middle of the two Unionist candidates to top the poll in South Belfast with 10,339 votes (32.3%). Spratt came second on 9,104 (28%) and McGimpsey 3rd on 7263 (23%).

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WEST Belfast was the first constituency to elect an MP in the 2005 election from Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams was elected with 24,000 votes and 70% of the vote (3,000 votes down on 2001 but a 4% increase).

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WOKE this morning to news that Tony Blair's Labour party had won the election (no surprise there) but with a much reduced majority (no big shock there either).

He got a ticking off for the way he handled the Iraq war and his majority (with only 9 mainland seats left to declare) the BBC think it'll be around the 66 mark predicted by the exit polls yesterday - so my bet for a 61-80 majority is still on!! Happy days.

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The first seat to declare has gone to Labour. The seat was a safe Labour seat that they were expeced to win.

More interestingly, the exit poll conducted by MORI has suggested Labour will end up with a majority of 66 seats. Why's this more interesting? Well if it comes true my £2 stake at BetFair will turn me £9.60 profit (money's on a majority of between 61 and 80)

That said, these exit polls tend to vary slightly from the actual result so it's not guaranteed, I'll have to keep my fingers crossed.

The Electoral Commission have said polling has so far been "slow and steady" all day, but that they're expecting a big rush over dinner time. Indeed the electoral officer in my own polling station in south Belfast just shrugged and said "steadyish" when I asked if they'd been busy and there were only a couple of other voters about.

If turnout does stay low, Burnside, McGimpsey and Trimble are more likely to lose out than their DUP counterparts. Remember, if you don't vote - you can't complain so get out there!

I just came down the stairs, ready to go to bed and noticed something red folded up on the carpet. On picking it up I noticed it was a Jimmy Spratt campaign leaflet. It then listed all the reasons why he is such a good candidate and what he plans to do for South Belfast at Westminster...

Did it hell...

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I was listening to Newsline on BBC One Northern Ireland earlier whilst making my dinner in the kitchen and heard them start to talk about the actual process for the voting tomorrow. It made me think that maybe I should do a quick recap of how the voting system will work as EU's contribution - a public service responsibility if you will.

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My predictions through the Westminster Focus series are as follows:

DUP 7 - UUP 4 - SF 5 - SDLP 2

For seat by seat details and analysis as well as BetFair election odds and a free punt on the UK-wide General Election result, read on!

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NORTH Belfast is the last constituency left to cover in the Westminster Focus series. Here, Nigel Dodds seems firm favourite, after a dramatic win from the Ulster Unionists in 2001. The population of North Belfast is one of the smallest in Northern Ireland with 86,066 and that includes some areas of the Newtownabbey Borough Council area (most of the Macedon ward which includes Rathcoole). Nearly 45% of the population are Catholic by background and Sinn Fein's vote has grown steadily since 1996 without the SDLP's changing much.

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SOUTH Antrim, with a population of 99,810 which is just under 30% Catholic, will be a seat to watch for Unionists in this election. David Burnside will be defending the seat he won, from 8 month MP Rev Willie McCrea, in 2001. The seat takes in Antrim District Council, which is largely rural, and also includes Antrim Line (Glengormley) and Ballyclare DEAs from Newtownabbey Borough Council.

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USERS who view Everything Ulster through the Firefox web browser can now get instant access to a list of our recent comments, as well as recent posts.

I'm still working out how blogs in general and sepcifically the open-source b2evolution software, used at EverythingUlster.com, operate. These RSS/Atom feeds have always been available through links on the right hand side of the site, but now you can access them through Firefox directly using this icon, which can be found at the right hand side of the status bar at the bottom of the browser window. (see Note)

Users can choose from RSS 2 and the new Atom technology for syndicating either EU Comments or the EverythingUlster blog itself (ie our recent posts).

Let me know if any of you find this feature useful.

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SOUTH Belfast is one of the older seats in Northern Ireland, in fact in one form or another it has been around since the birth of Northern Ireland in 1921 and further even as far back as the 19th century. South Belfast, with a population of ~ 95,000, is currently held by Martin Smyth of the Ulster Unionists who is stepping down this year after 23 years as MP for the constituency. As well as the southern quarter of Belfast City Council, it also takes in a little bit of the Castlereagh District Council area. With a potentially evenly split Unionist vote, and a 40% Catholic population, this seat should be one to watch.

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NO, this is nothing to do with the questionable campaign slogan employed by the Ulster Unionists. This is something much more disturbing. Liam Kennedy, the Queen's University professor standing in West Belfast calling on the paramilitaries to go away had a severe blow dealt to his campaign today... from an advertising agency!

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NEWRY & Armagh constituency is made up of the Armagh District Council area and the west part of Newry & Mourne. Seamus Mallon has been MP for the area since he defeated Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson (now MEP for NI) in 1986, but is stepping down after 19 years of service. The population of Newry & Armagh is 100,950 as of 2001 and is two-thirds Catholic.

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Sinn Fein launched their manifesto on Friday and what a whopper - a veritable 56 page sleeping pill! It's all the sort of drivel you'd expect from Sinn Fein. Let's see what we've got...

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