Write a commentAll 41 seats representing 41 wards are now occupied in the local government elections to the new Newry, Mourne and Down “super” Council.
Newry Sports Centre was the venue for the count with the counts going from Friday morning well into Saturday evening although the Newry count didn't start to Saturday.
In Newry Sinn Fein’s Charlie Casey took top result with a first count return of 1693 votes. Also elected on the first count were Sinn Fein’s Valerie Harte and Liz Kimmins.
Independent Davy Hyland followed around 2pm with the SDLP’s Gary Stokes and Kevin McAteer following him around 5.30pm, filling the last two available seats.
First Count results in Newry were:
Charlie Casey 1693
Liz Kimmins 1565
Valerie Harte 1300
Davy Hyland 1045
Gary Stokes 938
Kevin McAteer 629
Peter McEvoy 664
Jacinta Duffy 555
Joshua Lowry 384
James Malone 41
Overall neither Sinn Fein nor the SDLP came out with a clear majority of seats in the new council, both getting 14 seats each. The DUP came next with 4 seats, UUP with 3, Alliance with 2, UKIP with 1 and Independent’s Jarlath Tinelly, Cadogan Enright and Davy Hyland completing the 41.
The new council will run in shadow with the existing council's until the first of April 2015.
They will have to agree a name for the new council and with Newry being a city the council will be able to call itself a “City Council” if it so wishes.
One of the more contentious issues will most certainly be where the new council locates it’s Headquarters with no doubt plenty of opportunity for heated discussions!
