Belfast West

And the #belw11 winners were … Paul Maskey (26% of the electorate) and the EONI (165 minutes)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 10, 2011, 2:24 am

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Paul Maskey blowing out candles on a muffin - it's his birthday

It was going to be hard for either of them to trip up. Paul Maskey’s coronation to continue Sinn Fein’s reign in West Belfast would have required some kind of enormous scandal to have brewed up earlier this week to spoil his chances – and even the ongoing, rumbling Mary McArdle story wasn’t enough to do that. The Electoral Office wanted a slick, faster-than-expected result to cancel out some of the bad publicity surrounding the referendum and Assembly election counts …

The small matter of a Belfast West by-election #belw11 … and two questions

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 9, 2011, 7:03 pm

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It’s difficult to get excited about the Westminster by-election. Polling stations have been open again across West Belfast for the second time in five weeks. This time, it’s a simple one-ballot first past the post election to see who will replace Gerry Adams TD in Westminster. The count will start soon after 10pm in the Kings Hall, with boxes verified as they start to arrive from across the constituency. It struck me this morning that where else in the UK …