Sinn Féin set for another Euro win

Sinn Féin was today preparing to capture its first-ever European Parliament seat in Northern Ireland.

As counting got underway in Belfast’s Kings Hall for the North’s three seats, the party was hopeful that former Stormont health minister Bairbre de Brun would be elected.

However, the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists were being widely tipped to continue their tradition of topping every European election.

DUP candidate Jim Allister had appealed to unionist voters to back him in a bid to prevent Sinn Fein from securing a propaganda victory by topping the poll.

Last November the DUP emerged Northern Ireland’s largest political party in the Assembly Election with 25.6% of the vote.

However, Sinn Féin was in second place then with 23.5%.

Sinn Féin was today boosted by its performance in the European and local government elections in theRepublic, with its Dublin candidate, Mary Lou McDonald, capturing a seat.

The battle for Northern Ireland’s third and final seats was expected to be much tighter and between the Ulster Unionists’ Jim Nicholson and the nationalist SDLP’s Martin Morgan.

There was also considerable interest in how independent candidate John Gilliland would perform.

Two other candidates were also vying for seats – the Socialist Environmental Alliance’s Eamonn McCann and the Green Party’s Lindsay Whitcroft.

Meanwhile, here is a breakdown of the 732-seat European Parliament after the elections that saw 150 million Europeans vote across 25 member nations of the expanded European Union.

The breakdown is based on official results.

Centre-right European People’s Party – 274.

European Socialist Party – 198.

European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party – 64.

Greens – 42.

European United Left – 36.

Union for Europe of the Nations – 28.

Europe of Democracies and Diversities – 15 (Euro-sceptic party that includes 12 for UK Independence Party).

Others – 75.