ELECTION 2022: A big gun departs, another returns in Fermanagh South Tyrone

MARK RAINEY on the first post-Foster poll in Northern Ireland’s most westerly constituency
Devenish Island near Enniskillen on Lough Erne. Photo: Pacemaker BelfastDevenish Island near Enniskillen on Lough Erne. Photo: Pacemaker Belfast
Devenish Island near Enniskillen on Lough Erne. Photo: Pacemaker Belfast

The mantra ‘every vote counts’ has had more relevance in Fermanagh South Tyrone (FST) in recent years than any other Northern Ireland constituency.

Voter turnout is particularly high right across this large, mainly rural, corner of the province where voter numbers are split fairly evenly between the unionist and nationalist camps - with elections frequently won and lost by the finest of margins.

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While some big names have dropped off the ballot paper for 2022, including former DUP leader Arlene Foster, others with a track record in elected politics and political activism have stepped forward to ensure the contest will be a fascinating one.

Former Ulster Unionist leader and MP Tom Elliott is on the comeback trail, while Emma DeSouza – who successfully fought a court battle that led to the Home Office accepting that British and Irish citizens born in NI will be treated as EU citizens for immigration purposes – is standing as an independent.

Mr Elliott served as an MLA before taking the Westminster seat from Sinn Fein’s Michelle Gildernew in 2015 – holding it for two years before Ms Gildernew reclaimed the seat in 2017 and then retained it ahead of Mr Elliott in 2019.

He is standing for the UUP alongside Rosemary Barton who has been at Stormont since 2016. Mr Elliott said he wouldn’t rule out a unionist gain from Sinn Fein.

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“It depends on turnout but there is always that outside chance,” he said.

“There are fine margins. There is a significant concern around the [NI] Protocol, and what it will do with our link to the United Kingdom, or as an integral part of the United Kingdom. That has galvanised some unionists to say ‘we really need to make our voice heard here’ - to make sure that the UK Government, and indeed the Republic of Ireland’s government, get a feel of the unionist community.”

Once again, Mr Elliott said, unionism seems to have “its back to the wall,” but added: “That’s when it often rises to the occasion”.

DUP candidate Deborah Erskine said unionists transferring votes to other unionist candidates after their first preference was “vitally important”.

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She said: “The power of transfers in this election is just as important as your first preference. We are on the doors and we are telling people to vote DUP, but transfer to other unionist parties as well.

“Nobody can call elections until the votes are all counted, but certainly if unionists come out and vote, and then transfer to other unionist parties, then every seat in any constituency is there to be won.”

Former DUP local constituency association chairman Paul Bell is standing for the DUP alongside Ms Erskine.

He came to prominence last May when he resigned from the party following a meeting to ratify Edwin Poots as leader. At the time he said former leader Arlene Foster had been “stabbed in the back,” however, he returned to the fold when Sir Jeffrey Donaldson replaced Mr Poots the following month.

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TUV candidate Alex Elliott from Ballinamallard said his party is “on the up” in the constituency.

“We have people coming from both the DUP and Ulster Unionists moving to us to give us their first preference votes,” he said.

Mr Elliott said he has experienced a backlash on social media from supporters of other unionist parties – particularly the UUP.

“It is a case of ‘beware of the Doug’. People aren’t happy with the direction he is taking the party,” Mr Elliott said.

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Adam Gannon has been selected as the SDLP’s sole candidate. The Erne West councillor is a teacher at St Kevin’s in Lisnaskea.

He said it will be a challenge to win back the seat the SDLP lost in 2017.

Speaking to MyFermanagh, Mr Gannon said: “It will be a challenge no doubt, but it’s a very winnable seat for us. There was less than 100 votes in 2017 that would have made the difference and we would have had an SDLP MLA here,” he said.

Emma DeSouza has launched a series of video messages on Twitter, elaborating on her pre-election pledges to push for a bill of rights - saying that “the vast majority of human rights protections under the Good Friday Agreement have not been implemented”.

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Careful vote management by Sinn Fein led to a fairly equal spread of first preference votes for the three successful candidates in 2017.

The big casualty in 2017 - when the number of MLAs in each constituency as cut from six to five - was DUP chairman Maurice Morrow who lost the seat he had held since 1998.

On that occasion, almost 2,900 SDLP transfers got Sinn Fein’s Sean Lynch over the line ahead of Lord Morrow by around 300 votes.

Full list of candidates:

Backhouse, Derek (Ind)

Barton, Rosemary (UUP)

Beaumont, Matthew (All)

Bell, Paul (DUP)

DeSouza, Emma (Ind)

Dolan, Jemma (SF)

Elliott, Alex (TUV)

Elliott, Tom (UUP)

Erskine, Deborah (DUP)

Gannon, Adam (SDLP)

Gildernew, Colm (SF)

Kilpatrick, Emmett (PBP)

Mullen, Denise (Aontú)

Murphy, Áine (SF)

Turtle, Kellie (Green)

Ó Cofaigh, Dónal (CCLA)

Outgoing MLAs

Rosemary Barton (UUP)

Jemma Dolan (SF)

Deborah Erskine (DUP)

Colm Gildernew (SF)

Aine Murphy (SF)

March 2017 Stormont election results

Arlene Foster DUP 8,479 16.22% ELECTED

Michelle Gildernew Sinn Féin 7,987 15.28% ELECTED

Jemma Dolan Sinn Féin 7,767 14.86% ELECTED

Rosemary Barton Ulster Unionist 6,060 11.60% ELECTED

Seán Lynch Sinn Féin 6,254 11.97% ELECTED

Maurice Morrow DUP 7,102 13.59%

Richie McPhillips SDLP 5,134 9.82%

Noreen Campbell Alliance 1,437 2.75%

Alex Elliott TUV 780 1.49%

Donal Ó Cófaigh Labour Alternative 643 1.23%

Tanya Jones Green (NI) 550 1.05%

Richard Dunn NI Conservatives 70 0.13%

December 2019 general election result

Michelle Gildernew Sinn Féin 21,986 43.3% ―ELECTED MP

Tom Elliott Ulster Unionist 21,929 43.2 ―

Adam Gannon SDLP 3,446 6.8

Matthew Beaumont Alliance 2,650 5.2

Caroline Wheeler Independent 751 1.5