David McClarty (UUP) 7,498 (21.1% -6.3%)
John Dallat (SDLP) 6,077 (17.1% -3.7%)
Billy Leonard (Sinn Fein) 5,709 (16.1% +0.5%)
Yvonne Boyle (Alliance) 924 (2.6% -1.5%)
Malcolm Samuel Independent 71 (0.2% +0.2%)
A good swing to the DUP, despite some evidence of tactical voting for the UUP (SDLP down, but SF not up by corresponding amount).
@Kieran Deeny (Independent) 11,905 (27.4%)
@Thomas Buchanan (DUP) 7,742 (17.8%)
@Eugene McMenamin (SDLP) 3,949 (9.1% -19.6%)
@Derek Hussey (UUP) 2,981 (6.9% -23.5%)
Fascinating stuff here, as five of the six Assembly members for the constituency fought it out, and the parties that stood in 2001 managed only 55% of the vote between them. Deeny clearly managed to pull together two thirds of the SDLP vote and a respectable chunk from the Unionists too, a genuine cross-community result in one of Northern Ireland’s more polarised areas.
@Peter Weir (DUP) 11,324 (35.1%)
David Alderdice (Alliance) 2,451 (7.6%)
Liam Logan (SDLP) 1,009 (3.1% -0.3%)
Julian Robertson (Conservative) 822 (2.5% +0.3%)
Chris Carter (Independent) 211 (0.7%)
Janet McCrory (Sinn Fein) 205 (0.6% -0.2%)
Lady Hermon is thus the unlikely sole survivor of the UUP cull. As with West Tyrone, the parties that stood in 2001 got only 57% or so of the votes cast this time. The DUP/UKUP vote appears to have plateau’d here in the mid-30s; Alliance got back some of the votes loaned to the UUP (and it would seem to the SDLP as well) in 2001. It will be interesting to compare with the local election results.
@David Simpson (DUP) 16,679 (37.6% +8.1%) On a straight swing characteristic of the rest of Northern Ireland, David Trimble lost his seat to the DUP. On the face of it he doesn’t seem to have benefited from tactical voting any more than in 2001 – indeed it almost looks as if Alliance votes last time went to the SDLP, which can’t be right. The end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.
*@David Trimble (UUP) 11,281 (25.5% -8.0%)
@John O’Dowd (Sinn Fein) 9,305 (21.0% -0.1%)
@Dolores Kelly (SDLP) 5,747 (13.0% -1.9%)
Alan Castle (Alliance) 955 (2.2%)
Tom French (WP) 355 (0.8% -0.2%)
*@David Burnside (UUP) 11,059 (29.1% -8.0%)
Noreen McClelland (SDLP) 4,706 (12.4% +0.3%)
Henry Cushinan (Sinn Fein) 4,407 (11.6% +2.2%)
@David Ford (Alliance) 3,278 (8.6% +4.1%)
Given the overall DUP swing, McCrea winning this seat was not surprising – notable if anything that his vote went up rather less than most DUP candidates, and that the margin was increased by a “tactical unwind” of votes from Burnside, particulalry to Alliance.
Gareth McGimpsey (UUP) 7,872 (21.3% -19.0%)
@Kieran McCarthy (Alliance) 3,332 (9.0% +2.3%)
Joe Boyle (SDLP) 2,496 (6.7% +0.6%)
Terry Dick (Conservative) 1,462 (3.9%)
Dermot Kennedy (Sinn Fein) 949 (2.6% +0.4%)
The result not surprising, though the swing to the DUP in what is now their strongest constituency (I think) is impressive. Note again some tactical unwind in favour of Alliance.
the KGB simply invented the idea that the widespread use of atomic weapons would result in a “nuclear winter” in order to strengthen the anti-nuclear lobby in the West
That sounds to me like disinformation from the opposite political direction, and anyone who takes it seriously probably doesn’t understand the scientific process.