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COUNCILLOR whose strong Westminster vote knocked the SDLP into third place in West Belfast has his sights set on the assembly.
People Before Profit (PBP) candidate Gerry Carroll, who received almost 7,000 votes, predicted a bright future for his party and socialism in the north.
Just last year, Mr Carroll caused an election upset by winning a seat on the new Belfast City Council in the Black Mountain ward in west Belfast - a Sinn Féin heartland.
While he was not expected to unseat Sinn Féin's Paul Maskey in West Belfast, Mr Carroll finished in second place with 6,798 - a 19.24 per cent share of the over-all vote. He almost quadrupled his vote from the 2011 by-election.
Mr Carroll was yesterday celebrating what he called "a historic result" and has turned his attention immediately to next year's assembly election.
It has already been suggested that Mr Carroll could possibly
take an assembly seat at the expense of the SDLP, or even Sinn Féin.
Writing on Slugger O'Toole, commentator Chris Donnelly predicted that Mr Carroll would make an impact.
He had the potential, in the medium term, Mr Donnelly said, to attract votes from dissident and
disaffected republicans, as well as the left in the constituency. Gaining anything up to 10 per cent of the Westminster vote, he added, would make an assembly seat "a distinct possibility".
"If Carroll starts to pose a challenge to the SDLP on first preferences, then he could seize the SDLP seat, though the fifth Sinn
Féin MLA seat could also be the one to go in that scenario, not least due to unionist transfers likely propelling the SDLP above Sinn Féin and the PBP candidate," Mr Donnelly said.
Speaking after the result, Mr Carroll said "West Belfast is rising. This is only the beginning".
"If that vote was repeated in an assembly election, for example, we'd take a seat. If the result was repeated in the council elections we'd take three seats. Things do change. We can build an alternative," he said.
"We won't stop here. A change is underway in this community. We will keep fighting, keep building, and keep campaigning for a new politics based on our social-ist principles. We didn't win this time, but we sent a massive message to the big parties, and have laid the basis for big victories in the future. To those areas that didn't have a PBP candidate this year our message is simple: We are coming to you."
n THUMBS UP: People Before Profit candidate Gerry Carroll
PICTURE: Hugh Russell