Northern Ireland

John O'Dowd secures one-third of Sinn Féin delegates' votes after low-key deputy leadership challenge

Sinn Féin has released the result of the deputy leadership contest between Michelle O'Neill and John O'Dowd. Picture by Hugh Russell
Sinn Féin has released the result of the deputy leadership contest between Michelle O'Neill and John O'Dowd. Picture by Hugh Russell Sinn Féin has released the result of the deputy leadership contest between Michelle O'Neill and John O'Dowd. Picture by Hugh Russell

JOHN O'Dowd secured one-third of delegates votes in his unprecedented challenge for the Sinn Féin deputy leadership, it emerged yesterday.

After refusing to make public the result of last weekend's ard fheis vote on the party's vice-presidency, Sinn Féin relented and circulated the breakdown of votes among members.

Former Sinn Féin director of publicity Danny Morrison then went public with result on Twitter yesterday morning.

Incumbent Michelle O'Neill received 493 delegates' votes (67 per cent), while Mr O'Dowd received 241 votes (33 per cent).

The Upper Bann MLA announced that he was challenging for the deputy leader's post in August, a move welcomed at the time by Ms O'Neill.

However, as revealed by The Irish News last month, the party's ard chomhairle ruled that there would be no hustings events, while candidates were discouraged from speaking to the media about the internal election.

It remains unclear what prompted Sinn Féin to release the information after initially refusing to.

Quizzed on the issue last night by the BBC, Ms O'Neill denied the party was embarrassed into the U-turn, saying the "media was more fascinated than the (Sinn Féin) membership" by the result.

Ahead of the result being made public, a close ally of Mr O'Dowd criticised how the contest was conducted.

Gabby Fegan Conway, a sister of Sheena Campbell, the Sinn Féin election candidate shot dead by the UVF in 1992, is understood to have accompanied the Upper Bann MLA during the counting of votes in the deputy leadership election.

In a post on Facebook, she spoke of her "disappointment in the party and the leadership in how they handled the whole process".

"It's great to know that we have strong republicans the length and breadth of the 32 counties that are not going to be dictated to and are not just nodding dogs that follow suit when told to," she posted.

Ms Fegan Conway commended the "courage" shown by Mr O'Dowd in launching the challenge and the manner in which he accepted defeat.

"The party has a lot of soul searching to do and the leadership in particular need to consult with their grassroots in a meaningful way if it wants to progress and develop as it says it does," he concluded.