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It was a cruel blow for Alliance's Helena Young when the results of the Local Government Election count in Newry were eventually confirmed at 7.20pm last evening. What it all boiled down to in the end was her first preference vote tally of 830, which just wasn't enough of a base to overtake the larger first preferences of the SDLP's Doire Finn and Michael Savage at 961 and 935 respectively. Additionally Sinn Féin voters tendancy to only vote as far down the ballot paper as their candidates go left few transfers available from their pot. That party's remarkable count of 6,809 first preference votes took just over 65% of the total valid vote.
Young ran in Newry at the 2019 Local Government Election missing out by just 42 votes to the SDLP's Gary Stokes. She has been heavily involved in the local community ever since and many locally had thought she would have had no problem getting over the line this time.
In the end transfers from Nicola Grant, The Workers Party; Mariya Krupska, Independent; Andrew McCracken, UUP and Sharon Loughran, Aontú actually benefited the SDLP rather than Alliance, with Helena Young ending up 158.86 votes behind next placed Doire Finn, compared to the first count when she was 105 votes behind Michael Savage!
Have no doubt about it though, Newry's results were all about Sinn Féin and their remarkable ability to get a large first preference count out for all their candidates. Going in with three sitting councillors the party managed to easily bring on board a fourth. With an electoral quota of 1494 sitting Councillor Valerie Harte and Councillor Cathal King got through on the first count with votes to spare.
Cllr Harte's tally of 2085 and the remarkable tally of 1982 in the first election appearance, for Councillor Cathal King, who was co-opted by Sinn Féin to the council in December 2022, replacing Cllr Roisin Mulgrew, not only got them elected but got party colleagues Aidan Mathers and Councilor Geraldine Kearns elected on the second count. Cllr Kearns was also co-opted in December 2023 replacing Cllr Charlie Casey. In his first attempt for a seat on council Aidan Mathers missed out election on the first count by just 11 votes with a first preference of 1483. Sitting Councillor Cllr Geraldine Kearns achieved a first preference of 1259 votes.
Ultimately for the SDLP they will be very happy to have retained their two seats in the face of such a Sinn Féin rush.
First preference votes for the other candidates were as follows: Nicola Grant: The Workers Party: 104; Mariya Krupska, Independent: 209; Sharon Loughran, Aontú: 318 and Andrew McCracken, UUP: 285. Total valid vote 10,451.
