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http://republican-news.org Flash: SF wins two Euro seats, chance for third Sinn Fein's Bairbre de Brun has ben elected on the first count
in the Six Counties election for the European Parliament after
voters were tallied tihs afternoon.
Earlier today, Mary Lou McDonald took the fourth and last seat
in the Dublin constituency to became the party's first Member
of the European Parliament. And, before the end of the day,
the two may be joined in Brussels by a third SF candidate.
In the Six Counties, the DUP's Jim Allister and Sinn Fein's
Bairbre de Brun came first and second with 32.0% and 26.3% of
the vote respectively, and both were elected on the first
count.
The race for the third and last seat will be between Martin
Morgan of the nationalist SDLP who stands on 15.9% and Ulster
Unionist Jim Nicholson, who stands on 16.6%. Transfers from
independent candiate John Gilliland, who took 6.6%, and
Allister's surplus, are expected to ensure Nicholson retains
his seat.
The other two candidates, socialist Eamon McCann and Lidsay
Whitcroft of the Green party, took 1.7% and 0.9% of the vote
respectively.
In his acceptance speech, Jim Allister denounced "Sinn
Fein/IRA", Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, and the Dublin
and London governments. Portraying the election as a crusade
against Sinn Fein, he declared that the days of "pushing
unionists around are gone". His message to the two governments
was that there would be "no devolution with terror", a
reference to ongoing talks on efforts to resote the
institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement.
However, Sinn Fein was celebrating its best ever election in
the North, while the SDLP were claiming that, despite losing
John Hume's seat in Europe, their decline has been stemmed.
Meanwhile, despite securing two seats, the combined vote of the
unionist parties dropped to 48.8%, falling short of a majority
for the first time and underlining the fact that the days of
unionist majority rule in the Six Counties are over.
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