SOUTH DOWN:SDLP LEADER Margaret Ritchie retained her party's South Down seat with a considerable lead over Sinn Féin Education Minister Caitríona Ruane. The result was predicted, but surpassed all expectations.
Ms Ritchie’s victory appears to have been a result of tactical, cross-community voting, with many of the constituency’s unionists voting “against” Ms Ruane, whose handling of the eleven-plus issue has not benefited her.
Ms Ritchie received 20,648 votes, comfortably ahead of closest rival Ms Ruane, who took 12,236. The third-ranking candidate was the DUP’s Jim Wells, who had 3,645 votes, followed by John McCallister of Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force (UCUNF), with 3,093.
The rest of the count was made up by Traditional Unionist Voice’s Ivor McConnell (1,506), the Green Party’s Cadogan Enright (901) and the Alliance’s David Griffin (560).
In her speech, Ms Ritchie said she was “proud of the people of South Down”, who she described as the “salt of the Earth”, and she pledged to continue the “sterling representation” provided by her predecessor Eddie McGrady.
Mr Wells and Mr McCallister paid tribute to Mr McGrady, saying his work made it easy for unionists to vote for Ms Ritchie. Ms Ruane complained her loss had been a result of an “anyone but Sinn Féin” vote policy in the area.