Nail-biting end sees Boyle pipped at post

Nail-biting end sees Boyle pipped at post

11 May 2016

IT was the night’s hot topic. Would the SDLP’s Joe Boyle take a first nationalist seat for Strangford in his fourth, and last, Assembly contest?

With 2,724 first preference votes putting him in sixth place, an increase of almost 200 since 2011, it seemed Portaferry’s hard-grafting councillor, the last competitor for the 108th seat several times before, might finally have done it.

Accustomed to a nail-biting finish for the sixth Strangford seat, Joe and his team began to pace, huddled around calculators in Bangor’s Aurora hall as they too wondered “had he done it?”

Speculation as to whether the likeable Portaferry chip shop owner was in or not grew as eliminations were made and credits totted. 

Hopeful that transfers from Sinn Fein and the Greens might just push him over the line, his expectations were heightened by news that UUP leader Mike Nesbitt had topped the poll (4,673 votes), apparently at the expense of his party’s second candidate Philip Smith (1,694).

So close in 2011 and in 2007, when he came within 31 votes of a seat, Mr Boyle was also buoyed by a good poll in Ballynahinch and Killyleagh where he 

credited party colleagues Terry Andrews and Mark Murnin for being his “eyes and ears in mainland Down”, and by an “exceptional” performance in the Ards peninsula, particularly his home town where he estimates he took 85 per cent of votes from a 60 per cent turnout.

Hoping 12 years of experience and “hard work” had finally paid off, his first assessment of the night was one of being “cautiously optimistic” as he took comfort from his increase since the last Assembly election and an increase of 400 votes since last year’s Westminster election.

“The people of Portaferry and surrounding area believe it is time they have an MLA in that part of the constituency,” he said.

“We are back here once again and our objective was to increase our votes, which we have done quite well. I was never going to have the luxury of topping the poll. We are in sixth place and that is where we always aimed to be. 

“We knew it would once again be a challenge and that it would come to the line. Our target is the sixth seat and it came particularly close in 2007 when I lost by just 31 votes.

“I am happy but I am mindfully aware I have been in similar positions which did not work out for me in the end. I am not opening the champagne just yet — I’ll stick to the 7UP. We just can’t predict.”

Hopeful that his healthy vote and transfers from Sinn Fein and the Greens might this time just push him over the line, the first disappointment of the night was just ahead for Mr Boyle.

Bolstered by 414 votes from Sinn Fein’s Dermot Kennedy at stage three, the Green transfers two rounds later proved the first bad omen with just 100 votes going his way.

With the meat of potentially nationalist transfers virtually distributed, the remaining hope was that he might benefit just enough from DUP or Independent transfers.

With the fight for the sixth seat now properly underway, at stage seven, the calculators in Mr Boyle’s corner were clicking overtime.

Although there were no certainties, with a cushion of almost 1,000 votes between him and his rival Mr Smith, the speculation was largely in his favour. But Mr Boyle had too much experience of disappointment to get carried away in daydreams.

“You never know where these transfers will go or how things will stack up,” he said.

“But the reality is we are now talking about significant unionist transfers..

“I am not sure. I am really not sure. I can’t even contemplate being ‘cautiously optimistic’ any longer.”

With a whisper of support from the DUP corner, a visibly more nervous Mr Boyle left the canteen to return to his calculating entourage.

It would all become clear by the end of the next stage, the most lengthy of the night, in which DUP surplus votes were reallocated and Independent Jimmy Menagh’s vote transferred.

But before the official word came through, Mr Boyle was spotted leaving the building.

Head down across the car park, he avoided any well meaning commiserators, preferring instead to make his way quietly home to Portaferry, whose people had done everything in their power to push their man over the line one last time.