Former West Belfast MP Joe Hendron was sensationally eliminated from the race for an assembly seat yesterday. He was the highest profile SDLP candidate to lose his seat on a day that saw the party's first preference vote slump across Northern Ireland.
Dr Hendron took 2583 first preference votes, well short of the quota of 4694.
He is one of the SDLP's most experienced campaigners and his defeat ensures that some of the party's best known names will not be in the assembly.
John Hume, Seamus Mallon, Eddie McGrady and Brid Rodgers all decided against standing this time around.
Dr Hendron has been a high-profile presence within the SDLP since his election to the Northern Ireland Convention in 1975. He was chairman of the committee on health and social services in the last assembly.
His greatest triumph came in 1992 when he defeated Gerry Adams to become MP for West Belfast.
- Also eliminated yesterday was former UUP rebel Pauline Armitage in East Derry. Mrs Armitage gained prominence when she joined Peter Weir in voting against the re-election of David Trimble as First Minister in November 2001. The former UDR soldier was suspended from the Ulster Unionists and shortly afterwards left the party. (Mr Weir was expelled.) Mrs Armitage ran this time as a UKUP candidate but took just 906 first preference votes. The quota was set at 4897.
- Another casualty was Fraser Agnew in North Belfast. In the assembly he had aligned himself with the United Unionist Assembly Party and this time he stood for the United Unionist Coalition. He took 802 votes.
- Unionist chameleon Roger Hutchinson will also be absent from the new assembly after losing his seat in East Antrim. He was elected in 1998 for the UKUP and took part in its meltdown, joining the Northern Ireland Unionist Party. After being expelled from the NIUP he spent a period as an independent before joining the DUP. When he was deselected as the party's candidate in East Antrim he returned to independent status and took 1011 first preferences.
- Denis Haughey, a founding member of the SDLP, became another of its high-profile casualties as he surrendered his seat in Mid Ulster late last night. Sinn Féin took three seats in the constituency, with the two main unionist parties taking one each, leaving just one available for the SDLP. That seat was taken by Cookstown councillor Patsy McGlone, ostensibly the junior partner on the ticket. Mr Haughey served as junior minister under Mark Durkan in the Office of Deputy First Minister in the first assembly. However, he polled almost 500 fewer votes than Mr McGlone and was eliminated from the contest.
