UK ELECTION: Several counts in Northern Ireland look on knife edge

July 05, 2024 at 06:42 am IST

(Alliance News) - Counting is continuing in Northern Ireland, with several constituency battles appearing to be on a knife edge.

The high-profile contest between DUP leader Gavin Robinson and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long in East Belfast is among those seats that remain too close to call.

In other key constituency battles, the DUP is locked in another tussle with Alliance in Lagan Valley, while Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry is facing a hard task to retain his North Down seat from the challenge of independent unionist Alex Easton.

The UUP is increasingly hopeful former Stormont health minister Robin Swann can take a seat from the DUP in South Antrim.

Sinn Fein looks set for a fierce fight with the UUP in the ever-close Fermanagh & South Tyrone count, where former RCN general secretary Pat Cullen stood for the republican party against Ulster Unionist councillor Diana Armstrong.

As votes continued to be counted, Armstrong said she was feeling "very confident" of victory.

All eyes are on the race for the greatest number of seats across Northern Ireland, with the potential of Sinn Fein cementing its position as the largest party in the region, having come out on top in the last Assembly and local council polls.

Such a result for the pro-Irish unity party would be bound to intensify the debate around the region's constitutional future.

Sinn Fein, which ran a relatively low-key campaign, could secure first place by retaining the seven seats it already holds, if the DUP drops down from the eight seats it won in 2019.

The two main parties traded relatively few hard blows during the last six weeks, reflective of the fact that relations between them have been fairly good in the five months since they resumed joint leadership of Stormont's restored devolved coalition government.

The DUP is under pressure in a number of constituencies, most significantly in East Belfast where Robinson is involved in that high-stakes contest with Long.

The party could face an uncomfortable night across the board, with the potential of seeing large majorities significantly cut in seats it would have considered safe.

Robinson's elevation to the leadership of his party came after the DUP suffered a seismic shock when former leader Jeffrey Donaldson quit after he was charged with a range of historical sexual offences in March – charges he denies.

Apart from the sudden departure of Donaldson from the political stage, the DUP has also been under fire from unionist rivals amid claims it oversold a government package of measures on post-Brexit trading arrangements that the party used to justify the end of its two-year boycott on devolution at Stormont in January.

Defeat for Robinson in East Belfast would be likely to raise questions about his fledgling leadership of the DUP, while a loss for Long would prompt some to ask whether the Alliance Party's surge of recent years has begun to subside.

The cross-community Alliance Party is walking a tightrope between having a really good night or a very disappointing one, with its fate resting on the outcome of the North Down, East Belfast and Lagan Valley counts.

In Lagan Valley, UUP candidate Robbie Butler conceded he was not going to win as he said the race between Alliance's Sorcha Eastwood and the DUP's Jonathan Buckley was too close to call.

The Ulster Unionists were without an MP in the last parliament and the party was growing in optimism on Friday morning that it will pick up South Antrim at a minimum, with Fermanagh and South Tyrone also well in play.

Asked if he was course for victory in South Antrim, Swann said: "It seems to be heading that way."

However, retired Army colonel Tim Collins, who ran for the UUP in North Down, blamed voters being more interested in "potholes and hedges" than international affairs after conceding defeat before the result was declared.

Success for the SDLP would be the retention of the two seats held in the last parliament by its leader, Colm Eastwood, and deputy leader, Claire Hanna.

Both look well placed for victory – in Foyle and South Belfast & Mid Down respectively.

The TUV, which is an arch critic of the DUP's decision to drop its protest boycott on devolution, did not stand in the last election.

While its entry into the fray this time round is highly unlikely to deliver it any seats, the votes it could potentially take from DUP candidates could have major implications in some of the closest battleground seats.

The TUV campaign suffered a major blow last month when Reform UK leader Nigel Farage personally endorsed two DUP election candidates, despite his party having an official electoral alliance with the TUV in Northern Ireland.

That led to a highly unusual situation in TUV leader Jim Allister's own North Antrim constituency, where he ran on a joint TUV-Reform UK platform, even though Farage personally backed the DUP candidate in that area, Ian Paisley.

However, early indications from the count suggested Allister has performed above expectations in the constituency race.

source: PA