Contested poll result heads for courtroom
The Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein were today preparing for a Belfast High Court showdown over a hotly disputed General Election result.
Judges will hear allegations from Ulster Unionist chairman James Cooper that Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew won the Fermanagh and South Tyrone seat because a village polling station remained open after voting hours.
Ms Gildernew won the Fermanagh and South Tyrone seat by a slender margin of just 54 votes.
Her opponent announced in June he would be seeking to have the result overturned in a special election court because votes were cast in the polling station in the border village of Garrison after the official closing time of 10pm.
The Ulster Unionists have compiled a dossier of evidence from polling officers and other witnesses in Garrison.
Sinn Fein has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Cooper, an Enniskillen solicitor, was trying to retain the seat following the retirement of sitting Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis now an Ulster Unionist peer.
In June, the UUP chairman insisted he had ‘‘a duty to society and to unionism in Northern Ireland to make sure the electoral process retains some credibility.
‘‘That has been damaged significantly at the moment and we as a party are determined that there should be a real effort made to make sure rules are applied and abided by, by all political parties.’’
Ms Gildernew, a Stormont Assembly member, said Mr Cooper’s decision to challenge the result was ‘‘a case of sour grapes’’.
She claimed it demonstrated he was ‘‘unable and unwilling’’ to accept the democratic will of the electorate.
‘‘The UUP is clearly clutching at straws and they should think long and hard before rejecting democracy in such a fundamental way. Just because the UUP is unhappy with the outcome of the process does not mean that they should seek to overturn democracy in action,’’ she added.
Ms Gildernew is the first republican MP from the area since Owen Carron lost the seat in 1983. IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was a former MP.
If Mr Cooper wins the case, it could result in a re-run of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone election campaign.
Four candidates stood in the General Election, with the nationalist SDLP’s Tommy Gallagher and Enniskillen bomb survivor Jim Dixon contesting the seat as an independent anti-Good Friday Agreement unionist.
