ADAMS SAYS SINN FÉIN TO MAKE MASSIVE GAINS IN ELECTION 
06/05/04 05:59 EST

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has claimed at the launch of the party's Local Government platform that Sinn Féin was on track "to make massive gains in the Local Government and after next Friday will have an elected representative in every county in Ireland working to deliver on our agenda for change."

Adams said: "A central part of our manifestos for Local government and for Europe is the desire for change, and the determination and commitment to deliver that change. In this manifesto we set out our proposals for the reform of local government and the strengthening of democracy at community level. This is the basis on which our new councillors on local authorities throughout the 26 Counties will work. Their task will be to maximise the benefits of local government for the people, within the limits of the present structures, while all the time striving to change those structures. Fundamental reform of local government will require action at central government level."

Adams said Sinn Féin councillors would be part of an All-Ireland team of elected representatives who were building "a new Ireland." 

"We are working to ensure that the corruption, neglect and mismanagement of the past is replaced by energetic campaigners, fighting for quality public services including empowered local democracy, accessible healthcare, housing as a right, improved transport, affordable childcare and education as the guarantee of equal opportunities for all."

Sinn Féin councillors had a record in local government which was 'second to none', he said.

"Sinn Féin is running 204 candidates for 253 seats throughout the 26 counties. 21% of our candidates are women and 23% are under 35 years of age. We have the most dedicated, hardworking, representative team of all the parties and after next Friday we hope to have an elected representative in every one of the 32 counties all of whom will be working hard to ahcieve the party's goal of making local government work for the people it is meant to represent."

The local elections take place on June 10 when the European elections will also take place.

There are seven candidates standing for the three Northern Ireland seats in the European parliament. They are Jim Allister (DUP); Martin Morgan (SDLP); Jim Nicholson (UUP); Bairbre de Brun (SF); Lindsay Whitcroft (Greens); Eamonn McCann (SEA); John Gilliland (Ind).

TURNOUT HIGH IN NATIONALIST AREAS IN NORTH 
06/11/04 14:01 EST

Northern Ireland's politicians were tonight preparing for a nail-biting European Parliament election count with the Ulster Unionists and the nationalist SDLP expected to fight it out for the final seat.

The results of yesterday's election will not be known until Monday when counting begins.

However, as ballot papers were verified today across the 18 constituencies, it emerged that turnout was stronger in Westminster constituencies with nationalist MPs.

The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin believed their candidates Mr Jim Allister and Ms Bairbre de Brun would capture the first two of Northern Ireland's three European Parliament seats.

The battle for the final seat was expected to be between Ulster Unionist MEP Mr Jim Nicholson and the SDLP's Mr Martin Morgan.

Over all turnout was estimated by the parties to be around 51%, which was typical for a European election in Northern Ireland but down on 1999 figure.

Tally men at the verification of ballots reported that Sinn Féin MP Mr Martin McGuinness's Mid Ulster constituency was reporting a 65.4 per cent turnout while his Westminster colleague Ms Michelle Gildernew's Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency returned a 66 per cent turnout.

By way of contrast, Unionist constituencies such as North Down and Strangford reported poor voter turnout, with 38 per cent and 39.9 per cent respectively. 

The DUP's Jim Allister has topped the Northern Ireland poll in the European election with Sinn Féin's Bairbre de Brun also taking an MEP seat.

Allister polled 175,761 first preference votes and Sinn Féin's Bairbre de Brun 144,541 - which means both were elected on the first count.

A third MEP has yet to be elected.

Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionist Party polled 91,164 first preference votes and the SDLP's Martin Morgan 87,559.

Independent John Gilliland polled 36,270, Eamonn McCann of the Social Environmental Alliance on 9,172 and Green Party candidate Lindsay Whitcroft on 4,810 votes.

The quota was 137,320. The total valid vote was 549,277 and the total poll was 554,744. There were 5,467 spoilt votes. The count began at 0900 GMT this morning, four days after voters went to the polls to elect three members to the European Parliament.

The count was delayed to allow all the European Union member states to complete their elections.

Some 554,744 voters took part in the election last Thursday to decide which of the seven candidates should take the North's three seats.

Earlier, Northern Ireland's Chief Electoral Officer, Denis Stanley, said the length of the count would depend on the spread of votes. But by about 1800 BST on Monday, all three new MEPs should be declared.

Turnout at the poll was down by more than 5% on the 1999 poll. Out of more than one million people eligible to vote, the final figure was 51.72%. The poll was heaviest in the west with Fermanagh/South Tyrone registering the highest poll at 66.75%, while turnout was lowest in North Down, with 38%.

EU RESULTS COMPLETE - NORTH AND SOUTH 
06/14/04 15:32 EST

The DUP's Jim Allister has topped the poll in the European election with Sinn Féin's Bairbre de Brun and the UUP's Jim Nicholson also taking MEP seats.

Allister polled 175,761 first preference votes and Ms de Brun 144,541. Both were elected on the first count. Nicholson polled 91,164 first preference votes. He was elected at the third stage with 147,058 votes.

Even before the third seat was declared, the SDLP's Martin Morgan conceded defeat to Mr Nicholson. Mr Morgan received 87,559 first preference votes.

PERCENTAGE CHANGE SINCE 1999 
DUP: +3.6 
Sinn Féin: +8.98 
UUP: -1.01 
SDLP: -12.1

It is the first time a Sinn Féin candidate has taken one of Northern Ireland's seats at the European parliament.

Morgan's defeat meant the SDLP for the first time did not have an MEP.

The three other candidates were eliminated at the second stage. Speaking after his election, Allister said: "We had a range of expectation and this is very much at the upper end, if not beyond that expectation. It is very gratifying, because when we went into this election we made it very clear that we had a win-win strategy for unionism and it has worked for unionism."

De Brun said: "We join with Mary Lou McDonald in Dublin and I am really happy about the answer people have given Sinn Féin across the island. One of the things that people were saying to us quite clearly on the door was that the vision of being able to walk in through the doors of the European Parliament - one from the north and one from the south - and putting forward the all-Ireland agenda in the heart of Europe is very important."

Nicholson, who secured his fourth term in the Parliament, said the DUP needed to deliver on its mandate. "I was one of the first to accept that we are now the minority unionist party, but they have got to deliver. They have made promises to the people that they have not delivered upon. The ball is in their court and we have got to wait and see what they are going to do in the future."

Morgan said the SDLP was still on course to retain at least two of its Westminster seats despite further slippage in its vote. "I think we can hold our heads up high," he said. "We may have slipped by one per cent but some pundits were totally writing us off at the outset of this campaign."

And in the EU election in the Republic, Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald won the fourth and last seat in the Dublin constituency to became the party's first MEP.

McDonald won her seat in the constituency along with Fine Gael's Mr Gay Mitchell, Fianna Fáil's Mr Eoin Ryan and Labour's Mr Proinsias de Rossa.

"Instinctively, people are republican," Sinn Féin President Mr Gerry Adams said by way of explaining his party's stunning performance, which was mirrored in local elections. "They want to see an end to British rule, want to see a united Ireland, want to see peace between orange and green."

The party has doubled its share of the vote in the Republic from the last European vote in 1999, when it polled 6.3 per cent. Ms McDonald took around a 14.5 per cent share of the Dublin vote.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern has conceded that Sinn Féin were the "major winners" and Fianna Fáil the "losers" in the weekend's local and European elections

He has promised a major reshuffle of the party in the fall and dismissed reports that he would make himself available to be appointed president of the European Commission, insisting he remained committed to leading Fianna Fáil into the next general election. 

"It was a bad election for us. We lost this election [and] there's no doubt that Sinn Féin won it," he said today at the official opening of Intel's new factory in Kildare.

The Taoiseach said the results clearly indicated some of the Government's polices, particularly in connection with the health service, "are not liked" and bemoaned the loss of support in working classes areas, long considered the traditional Fianna Fáil heartland.

"We have to reflect on our policies," a downbeat Taoiseach said. "We lost a lot of support in working class areas in different parts of the country."

Speaking this morning, the Tánaiste, Harney, said the Irish Government would have to learn the lessons of the weekend electoral drubbing and take tough decisions in areas such as transport, health and education. 

ADAMS WARY OF SINN FÉIN IN COALITION GOVERNMENT 
06/15/04 05:26 EST

Rushing into coalition government in the Republic could backfire on Sinn Féin, party president Gerry Adams said today.

Adams said aligning with other parties, either in opposition or government, would be a mistake unless the peace process and radical social reforms were a priority.

"It was always a mistake for parties like the Labour Party, which argue that they are radical and progressive, to be even contemplating going into coalition, " he said. 

"Instead of being the vanguard of Labour they become the mudguard. If we were going to contemplate involvement with any other party in opposition or government they would have to be good on the North," Mr Adams said. 

Adams added political partners would have to be focused on the national question and offer unequivocal support to the peace process. He said the party would make decisions on coalition involvement "in the fullness of time" based on whether the party's mandate could be advanced.

The Sinn Féin president ruled out coalition unless other parties agreed to terms on the peace process and called on them to work to resolve the current impasse.

"I think any party that is involved in trying to bring about change can only be involved in a government, first of all if you have a mandate and we don`t have such a mandate yet. And if the platform for that government honors and fulfils that party`s manifesto."

"I think the focus we all have to be involved in, and it`s above party politics, is getting this peace process sorted out and getting it bedded down and moved ahead," he said.

He also pointed to the need for radical reforms to reverse social inequalities, not just for those on the poverty line but also those struggling to get on the property ladder.

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said unionists must be prepared to go into government with Sinn Féin if republican "paramilitary activity" ceases.

Ireland's premier Bertie Ahern and Mr Blair are to meet on Friday and are expected to assess the prospects for restoring devolution.

The UUP's David Burnside today urged Mr Blair to tell the republican leadership its "time had run out" and they were delaying the establishment of Stormont.

Mr Blair said he had consistently made clear there was no way the institutions could function again without a "total cessation of all paramilitary activity. 

"That has been made clear throughout and I can assure you that I will be making exactly the same points again," he pledged.

But it was important to try to reach agreement backed by all parties. "That has to be on a clear, shared democratic understanding."

Blair continued: "I can assure you that there is no way we will be trying to force people into an executive and shared power with people unless they are prepared to give up their paramilitary activity completely."

He stressed: "If the IRA do definitely and clearly cease paramilitary activity and give it up, so that that campaign of violence in all its aspects becomes a thing of the past, I hope that the DUP and the UUP will be prepared to go into Government with them. In my view the challenge is for the IRA to give up violence completely but then the challenge is for all the parties to come together and make the executive and all the institutions work." 
 
 

The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization providing up-to-the-minute political news from Ireland to the world. The IAIS is funded entirely by contributions. Please send your tax-deductable contributions to IAIS at the 907 F St NE, Washington DC 20002. You can visit the IAIS at http://www.iais.org.