VOTERS GO TO THE POLLS IN WEST TYRONE
SF EXPECTED TO HOLD SEAT DESPITE McELDUFF KINGSMILL LOAF STUNT SUZANNE BREEN: NO EARTHQUAKE, BUT THERE MAY BE TREMORS NI COMMITTEE CALLS ON BREXIT MINISTER TO EXPLAIN BORDER PLANS
THE result in the West Tyrone by-election isn’t expected until the early hours of Friday as voters across the constituency go to the polls today.
Sinn Fein is the odds-on favourite to retain the seat, with 26-year-old solicitor Orfhlaith Begley on course to become the area’s first female MP.
The by-election follows the resignation of Barry McElduff four months ago. He stood aside amidst fury over a video he posted on social media of himself with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head (below) on the anniversary of the Kingmill massacre.
Polling stations across West Tyrone opened at 7am and will close at 10pm.
The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland said it expected the result around 3.30-4am, although the candidates are hoping that the declaration will be earlier.
The campaign has been low-key, although Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald and the other party leaders have all joined their candidates on the campaign trail.
The five main parties are contesting the election. The candidates include local DUP MLA Thomas Buchanan, SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan, Ulster Unionist councillor Chris Smyth, and Alliance’s Stephen Donnelly.
Sinn Fein secured 51% of the vote in last year’s Westminster election. Mr McElduff came in
more than 10,000 votes ahead of his nearest rival, Mr Buchanan. Turnout, which was 68% last June, is expected to be lower today.
Former Sinn Fein vice-president Pat Doherty won the seat from Ulster Unionist Willie Thompson in 2001.
Sinn Fein’s opponents have focused on the party’s boycott of Westminster, with the SDLP arguing that an abstentionist MP cannot deliver a strong anti-Brexit message.
Mr McElduff, who had been a Sinn Fein MLA for 19 years, was MP for only seven months before his resignation.
He posted the Kingsmill bread video on January 5, the 42nd anniversary of the massacre in which 10 Protestant workmen were shot dead by the IRA. It was seen by many as a deliberate insult to the victims and their families, although Mr McElduff denied that and said he meant no offence and the timing of the video was a ghastly coincidence.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Buchanan said voters had the chance to “pass judgment at the polls on Sinn Fein disrespect for victims and 17 years of no representation in the House of Commons”.
He said: “I have pledged on the doors to be a voice for everyone in West Tyrone in Parliament. People who were never before DUP voters have spoken to me about their disgust for how innocent victims were mocked and disrespected by Sinn Fein.