A grubby little Gerrymander in Newtiwnabbey - Kelly

Speaking after Sinn Féin voters in Newtownabby were disenfranchised at a special meeting of Newtownabby Council Gerry Kelly MLA said:

"This was a Sinn Féin seat and the SDLP joined with other parties to exclude a Sinn Féin co-option which is completely disgraceful and typical of this council’s treatment of Sinn Féin voters in Newtownabby over the previous years.”

Kelly’s comments came after a deal agreed between unionists, independents and SDLP councillors in Newtownabbey Borough Council has effectively disenfranchised Sinn Féin voters after the party’s proposed candidate to replace Briege Meehan was vetoed by other parties.

“New legislation passed last Thursday was intended to ensure political balance yet in a back room deal all the other parties joined to exclude a Sinn Féin candidate using the old system."

"Sinn Féin have been kept out of committee's in Unionist dominated councils and our voters have been treated as second class citizens. This decision to co-opt an independent candidate into a Sinn Féin seat is a grubby little Gerrymander!"

"We made our position perfectly clear and our intention to co-opt a Sinn Féin candidate into a Sinn Féin seat was the democratic entitlement of our voters."

"We have come to expect nothing less from the Unionist parties who demonstrate on a daily basis sectarian underhand dealings. However we are surprised at the SDLP have shown their colours in Newtownabby as they circle the wagons in their nasty attempt to cling on to power at the expense of other nationalist and republican residents in the area.

"Newtownabby councillors were faced with a stark choice yesterday, a bi-election or a Sinn Féin co-option. They hadn't got the nerve to face ratepayers with a huge bill for a bi-election and the prospect of Sinn Féin once again taking our rightful entitlement on the council was Hobson's choice for them.
“So they cobbled together this distasteful back room Gerrymander. We will be examining our legal options and call on the new candidate to do the decent thing and step aside," said Kelly.