SF on brink of seat in unionist sronghold

Sinn Féin were tonight on the brink of taking a seat in the strongly unionist stronghold of Jeffrey Donaldson.

Paul Butler polled 5,098 votes in Lagan Valley behind the massive 9,793 personal tally of the DUP MP.

Mr Butler said at the Lisburn count centre: “We had targeted the 4,000 mark so we were delighted to go past 5,000.

“I felt we really got a positive reception on doorsteps and on the street and the nationalist voters came out in big numbers.”

The Sinn Féin candidate was boosted by a mail-drop of scores of DVDs into unionist areas he didn’t canvass in.

Mr Donaldson will be disappointed that he didn’t defer some of his large surplus to party colleagues.

With Edwin Poots and Jonathan Craig expected to take the DUP haul to three seats, Mr Donaldson admitted taking a fourth was difficult.

“We tried out best with the vote management strategy but you can never get it absolutely right,” he said.

The MP added that many votes of former SDLP MLA Patricia Lewsey went to Sinn Féin.

He also lamented that over 800 “wasted votes” went to UK Unionist candidate Bob McCartney, which would work against the DUP by the time the final ballots were counted.

The strong performance by Trevor Lunn of the Alliance Party and Basil McCrea of the Ulster Unionists should also put them among the seats.