By Anne Cadwallader
Sinn Fein has once again been defeated in its annual bid to win the right to nominate a party candidate as lord mayor of Belfast, despite winning more votes and electing more councilors than any other party in the city.
The defeat came after the Alliance Party, which has three councilors to Sinn Fein’s 14, decided not to back the SDLP and support the Sinn Fein candidate, Alex Maskey, who has been a city councilor for 15 years.
Sinn Fein gained 35,000 votes in Belfast on June 7 this year, 12,000 more than the Ulster Unionist Party and over four times as many votes as Alliance. Because of the split between Unionists and Nationalists in city hall, however, the smaller party holds the balance of power.
There was a furious Sinn Fein response when the Alliance Party made its decision, paving the way for an Ulster Unionist to get the top job yet again, and a PUP councilor, with links to the UVF, becoming deputy lord mayor of the city.
Sinn Fein accused the Alliance Party of abandoning the inclusivity principles enshirned the Good Friday agreement, of hypocrisy in being prepared to see councilors with loyalist links becoming elected, and of ignoring its growing electoral mandate.
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The new mayor is Jim Rodgers of the UUP, with Hugh Smyth of the PUP his deputy. Last year, Sammy Wilson of the Rev. Ian Paisley’s DUP was lord mayor with a councilor representing the UDP (linked to the UDA) sitting as deputy lord mayor.
The leader of the Alliance group in city hall, David Alderdice, said while his party had previously supported Maskey’s unsuccessful bid to be mayor last year, it could not ignore the current calls for IRA disarmament.