Write a commentAll the votes have been counted and Newry and Armagh have returned five MLA’s Stormont Bound, one down on last year. The biggest shock of the count was Danny Kennedy losing his seat. Sinn Fein took 48.3% of the total vote.
Elected
William Irwin, DUP
Cathal Boylan, SF
Megan Fearon, SF
Justin McNulty, SDLP
Conor Murphy, SF
Eliminated
Rowan Tunnicliffe, Green Party 265 votes
Jackie Coade, Alliance 1418 votes
Emmet Crossan, CISTA 704 votes
Danny Kennedy, UUP 7939 votes
Losing out was the Ulster Unionist Party’s Danny Kennedy who was eliminated with 7939 votes. Bessbrook native Danny has been an Assembly member since 1998 during which he held the post as Minister for Regional Development.
Commenting to the media after his losing out Danny Kennedy spoke of how it was an honour to have served as a public representative and of his disappointment at not retaining his seat “I’m obviously very disappointed, I think we can hold our heads high, we performed well, but the Sinn Fein tide was too much and we couldn’t go against it in the end”
A turnout of 69.41% with 55,625 votes cast made it one of the largest turnouts in recent years. After spoiled votes 54918 votes were counted.
The DUP’s William Irwin and Sinn Fein’s Cathal Boylan were elected on the first count with 9760 and 9197 votes respectively.
Sinn Fein’s Megan Fearon and the SDLP’s Justin McNulty followed on the second count with 9175 and 9154 and Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy with 9018 votes rejoined his party colleagues on the third count.
