15.6.04
IRA2
BREAKTHROUGH FOR SINN FEIN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER
By David McKittrick and Paul Kelbie
15 June 2004
The Independent
Sinn Fein were the most conspicuous winners in both parts of Ireland
yesterday, taking the party's first-ever European seats in the
Republic and in Northern Ireland.
Its performance was accompanied by success in Belfast for the
Democratic Unionist Party, which topped the poll even though its
charismatic leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, did not stand in the contest.
These results confirm that efforts to restore devolution in Belfast,
which will begin later this week, will only succeed if the DUP and
the republicans can strike a deal together.
The third Northern Ireland seat last night went to Jim Nicholson of
David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party. The fact that the DUP took
almost twice as many votes as the UUP emphasised the new DUP
ascendancy within unionism.
The new Sinn Fein MEPs are Bairbre de Brun in the north and Mary Lou
McDonald in Dublin.
In the south, the main features were Sinn Fein's performance, which
some commentators regard as a breakthrough into mainstream southern
politics, and the punishment meted out by voters to Fianna Fail, the
main governing party.
Fianna Fail took a hammering both in Europe and in the simultaneous
council elections, with commentators suggesting that voters regarded
the government as arrogant.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, conceded that the election was a serious
rebuff to his government, saying his party took no comfort from the
results. There would be a major cabinet re-shuffle in September, he
announced.
The result was a boost for Fine Gael, the major opposition party,
which has been struggling for several years and which yesterday
claimed it had turned a corner. The advances it has made in these
elections mean it can argue that it is becoming a credible leader of
an alternative coalition government.
Mr Ahern's government did, however, score a comfortable victory in
last week's referendum on Irish citizenship, with a 79 per cent vote
in favour of his government's call for new restrictions. Citizenship
will now only be granted to babies with at least one parent who has
lived in Ireland for at least three of the last four years.
In Scotland, a higher than expected turnout maintained the status quo
for the three main parties in the European election as Labour, the
Tories and the Scottish National Party each emerged with two seats.
As the final results were announced yesterday it appeared that the
biggest surprise of the campaign was the turnout - 30.7 per cent, or
6 per cent higher than in 1999, and far higher than predicted.
The final seat in the seven allocated to Scotland was won by the
Liberal Democrats, who achieved 13.06 per cent of the ballot,
although the UK Independence Party staged a credible performance to
come from nowhere in 1999 to 6.68 per cent of the votes - a whisker
behind the Greens at 6.75 per cent.
The Tories achieved a respectable 17.7 per cent while Labour won
26.33 per cent and the Scottish Socialist Party obtained 5.2 per cent.
Although the Scottish Nationalists emerged with 19.61 per cent of the
vote and held on to two seats, the result was yesterday seen as a
failure of the party leadership to overtake Labour.
Critics of the SNP leader, John Swinney, called it a disaster for his
credibility as he "failed miserably" to beat Labour's share of the
vote - eventually coming in nearly 7 per cent behind.
At the 1999 European elections they had come less than 2 per cent
behind Labour - Labour with under 29 per cent of the votes and the
SNP with more than 27 per cent.
"We achieved our major objective which was to hold our two-seat
position," said Mr Swinney, in his defence.
Scotland's MEPs are now David Martin and Catherine Stihler for
Labour; Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith for the SNP; Struan Stevenson and
John Purvis for the Tories, and Elspeth Attwooll for the Liberal
Democrats.
BREAKTHROUGH FOR SINN FEIN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER
By David McKittrick and Paul Kelbie
15 June 2004
The Independent
Sinn Fein were the most conspicuous winners in both parts of Ireland
yesterday, taking the party's first-ever European seats in the
Republic and in Northern Ireland.
Its performance was accompanied by success in Belfast for the
Democratic Unionist Party, which topped the poll even though its
charismatic leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, did not stand in the contest.
These results confirm that efforts to restore devolution in Belfast,
which will begin later this week, will only succeed if the DUP and
the republicans can strike a deal together.
The third Northern Ireland seat last night went to Jim Nicholson of
David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party. The fact that the DUP took
almost twice as many votes as the UUP emphasised the new DUP
ascendancy within unionism.
The new Sinn Fein MEPs are Bairbre de Brun in the north and Mary Lou
McDonald in Dublin.
In the south, the main features were Sinn Fein's performance, which
some commentators regard as a breakthrough into mainstream southern
politics, and the punishment meted out by voters to Fianna Fail, the
main governing party.
Fianna Fail took a hammering both in Europe and in the simultaneous
council elections, with commentators suggesting that voters regarded
the government as arrogant.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, conceded that the election was a serious
rebuff to his government, saying his party took no comfort from the
results. There would be a major cabinet re-shuffle in September, he
announced.
The result was a boost for Fine Gael, the major opposition party,
which has been struggling for several years and which yesterday
claimed it had turned a corner. The advances it has made in these
elections mean it can argue that it is becoming a credible leader of
an alternative coalition government.
Mr Ahern's government did, however, score a comfortable victory in
last week's referendum on Irish citizenship, with a 79 per cent vote
in favour of his government's call for new restrictions. Citizenship
will now only be granted to babies with at least one parent who has
lived in Ireland for at least three of the last four years.
In Scotland, a higher than expected turnout maintained the status quo
for the three main parties in the European election as Labour, the
Tories and the Scottish National Party each emerged with two seats.
As the final results were announced yesterday it appeared that the
biggest surprise of the campaign was the turnout - 30.7 per cent, or
6 per cent higher than in 1999, and far higher than predicted.
The final seat in the seven allocated to Scotland was won by the
Liberal Democrats, who achieved 13.06 per cent of the ballot,
although the UK Independence Party staged a credible performance to
come from nowhere in 1999 to 6.68 per cent of the votes - a whisker
behind the Greens at 6.75 per cent.
The Tories achieved a respectable 17.7 per cent while Labour won
26.33 per cent and the Scottish Socialist Party obtained 5.2 per cent.
Although the Scottish Nationalists emerged with 19.61 per cent of the
vote and held on to two seats, the result was yesterday seen as a
failure of the party leadership to overtake Labour.
Critics of the SNP leader, John Swinney, called it a disaster for his
credibility as he "failed miserably" to beat Labour's share of the
vote - eventually coming in nearly 7 per cent behind.
At the 1999 European elections they had come less than 2 per cent
behind Labour - Labour with under 29 per cent of the votes and the
SNP with more than 27 per cent.
"We achieved our major objective which was to hold our two-seat
position," said Mr Swinney, in his defence.
Scotland's MEPs are now David Martin and Catherine Stihler for
Labour; Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith for the SNP; Struan Stevenson and
John Purvis for the Tories, and Elspeth Attwooll for the Liberal
Democrats.
