SOUTH ANTRIM:SOUTH ANTRIM was the combined Conservatives and Unionists' most hopeful target, and Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey put his own personal reputation on the line to go all out to win it. In the end, the DUP's Willie McCrea retained the seat with 11,536 votes.
Sir Reg came second with 10,353, while Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin was third, with 4,729. The turnout was 54.15 per cent.
Sir Reg was hoping that the notoriously unpredictable South Antrim electorate would swing his way.
The wished-for plan was that the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) candidate would divert sufficient votes away from Mr McCrea – who held the DUP’s most vulnerable seat – to allow Empey’s United Conservatives and Unionists – New Force (UCUNF) in.
There was a hope, too, that tactical voting by nationalists could be enough to nudge Sir Reg to victory.
His supporters had even staged a last minute eve-of-poll strategy apparently designed to woo that section of the vote: in the mainly nationalist village of Crumlin, they hurriedly ditched the Union Jack-adorned UCUNF posters and replaced them with “Empey or McCrea – you decide” posters.
But the tactical voters failed to materialise, and the TUV’s Mel Lucas, a former DUP party member, polled a less-than-damaging 1,829.
While Mr McCrea’s 2005 majority of 3,448 has been substantially reduced, Sir Reg was unable to overcome the disadvantages of entering the race belatedly and as an outsider. He had stepped forward after the Ulster Unionists’ first choice of candidate, Antrim mayor Adrian Watson, was dropped in a row about his views on gay bed-and-breakfast guests.
From the moment he entered the count at Valley Leisure Centre in North Belfast, Sir Reg had the look of a man at serious risk of losing.
He was tense-looking, watchful, pacing around restlessly and refusing to speak to reporters. Mr McCrea, by contrast, strolled in with a sleek, confident, expansive manner.
He and his circle made a camp at the edge of the count, and stayed there throughout. “He makes everyone come to him,” said one observer.
Sir Reg was aware that he was risking everything with the gamble in South Antrim – not only his own leadership of the Ulster Unionists, but the much-hyped link with the Conservatives which, it seems, has utterly failed to bear fruit. Already, party colleague David McNarry has said that he thinks Sir Reg Empey’s leadership is finished.
Mr McCrea celebrated in the arms of fellow freshly re-elected MPs Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) and Jeffrey Donaldson (Lagan Valley).
His acceptance speech was a rowdy affair, with jubilant DUP supporters shouting “Down, down, down” and “Where’s your leader?” at the Ulster Unionists.
Sir Reg failed to take the podium, instead remaining sitting in the hall where the count had taken place, his back against the wall.