An article by William Graham in the Irish News should underline the reality for us all that – if we work for it over the next 27 days – Alban Maginness can win back the SDLP seat in Europe:

“There will also be considerable interest in the third seat held by Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson and whether there is any possibility of the SDLP’s Alban Maginness being in with a chance of coming through the middle. Research for the SDLP by an American, Dr Michael Moriarty, points to 65 000 potential new voters on the register and claims that the breakdown is approximately 50 000 nationalist and 15 000 unionist. He adds that the party needs an additional 20 000 votes to win a seat.

“Most observers believe the SDLP faces an uphill battle if it is to come within range although there could be a knock-on effect from the Allister factor that would mean the UUP vote starting from a much lower projected figure…”

Commentators could have been writing the SDLP off by now, but they’re not. They’re saying we’re very much in the race. The Irish News article shows that this election is game on, that it’s in our hands and that it can be done.

Michael Moriarty is telling us we need to add at least 20 000 votes to our 2004 total to be really in with a shout. Let’s look at two key facts:
(1) In the 2004 European election, the SDLP polled 87 559.
(2) In the 2005 Westminster election, less than one year later, we polled 125 626.
So less than a year after the 2004 election, we didn’t just add 20 000 votes to our 2004 total – we added 38 067. We’ve done it before and we can do it again.

Like many of you, every election I’ve been involved in has been an “uphill battle”. None more so than the 2005 Westminster campaign in Foyle. With pure hard work on the ground, we won then. The same attitude and approach will see us win now. Alban Maginness has been campaigning tirelessly and brilliantly for months now. Let’s all get out there for the last few weeks and give everything we have to make this happen.

Best wishes

Ronan McCay
Director of Organisation & Election Planning

Tags: Alban Maginness, European Elections

This entry was posted on Monday 11th May 2009 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Europe, Members Notices, SDLP Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.