SF capture record fifth West Belfast seat

Sinn Féin’s electoral machine outshone its politicians in West Belfast where precise vote management ensured the party seized a record fifth seat.

While party president Gerry Adams was the most recognised of the Sinn Féin faces to romp home, it was the party workers operating behind-the-scenes who were credited with ensuring republicans won five of the available six West Belfast assembly posts.

As counting tonight continued in the constituency, the SDLP’s Alex Attwood was favourite to grab the final spot at the expense of Democratic Unionist Diane Dodds who sensationally seized a seat in 2003.

While the outcome of the sixth seat had yet to be officially decided, the first preference votes seemed to suggest that forensic vote control by Sinn Féin had ensured its success, while Ian Paisley’s DUP was facing a rare defeat in this election.

Mr Adams said the success in West Belfast was a team effort and he spent much of the day paying tribute to the Sinn Féin strategists who had made it possible.

“Full credit to the West Belfast election machine,” he said. “It’s the best election machine in this island, arguably in these islands.”

“They did a brilliant job.”

Explaining the reasons for the success of his party’s West Belfast electoral operation, he said: “It’s essentially a matter of vote management, but you have to have the votes in the first instance and that arises from the fact that people [in the constituency] are very republican, have a very acute sense of their Irishness and are very wedded to the future.

“And we have been working a long time in tandem with those local communities and I would like to think we serve those local communities well.”

But with the prospect of Diane Dodds losing a seat, did he feel any concern at the loss of a unionist voice in a constituency that includes the Shankill Road?

“I am the MP for West Belfast, I do represent people from the Shankill on social and economic issues,” he said. “I don’t pretend to represent them on the big national issue.”

With the counting process running slower in West Belfast than had been expected, it appeared tonight that the Sinn Féin gain may not be officially confirmed until counting resumes tomorrow.

While Diane Dodds had a narrow first preference lead on Alex Attwood, it seemed unlikely that she would secure the necessary transferred votes to hold him off when the final leg of the race takes place.

Since Sinn Féin first came to dominate the West Belfast constituency its greatest problem has been stopping too many of its supporters giving their first preference votes to Gerry Adams.

In today’s first count Mr Adams was approximately 1,100 votes more than the quota necessary to capture an Assembly spot, while each of his four colleagues were within 550 votes of securing a seat.

In a near perfect example of vote management, the party seemed to have persuaded its supporters to spread their first preferences between the full range of Sinn Féin candidates to ensure maximum success.