East Belfast hits the crossbar
By Mick Naughton.
There was anger among Sinn Féin activists as they watched Worker's
Party transfers go to the PUP and UDP at last Thursday's count
for the Pottinger ward of East Belfast, which includes the Short
Strand, an area decimated by the loyalist death squads.
The Short Strand came within a whisker of taking Sinn Féin's
first seat in East Belfast as Dominic Corr polled 978 votes, an
increase from the 810 he achieved during the Westminster vote
earlier this month.
A handful of transfers would have secured this seat but with over
half the SDLP's 309 votes going to the unionist Alliance party
Dominic just missed having his bum on a City Hall seat.
That Mervyn Jones (Alliance) and Robert Cleland (DUP) had just
managed to stay ahead of the Sinn Féin man said it all. Earlier
in the day Jones had predicted that he was on the way out, and
Corr would get in but was surprised at how the Workers Party
transfers went, easing the way for the PUP and UDP while the SDLP
transfers took Jones himself in.
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