Burnside victorious in South Antrim

David Burnside: A UUP MP

The Ulster Unionist Party's David Burnside has taken the South Antrim seat off the Democratic Unionist Party.

It is a personal victory for Mr Burnside who last year lost out in a by-election to the DUP's William McCrea, following the death of the sitting MP.

It was a victory which stunned the Ulster Unionist Party, as South Antrim had been a notoriously safe Ulster Unionist seat.

But after the DUP holding the seat for just a few months, the Ulster Unionists have won it back with a majority of about 1,000.

Afterwards, Mr Burnside said: "I voted for the agreement. I didn't vote for the treatment of the RUC.

"I did not vote for the terrorists in government without decommissioning."

"The reason why there has been disillusionment within the unionist community, within my own party and expressed through the Democratic Unionist Party and other unionist parties, is because decommissioning has not taken place," he said.

"We have not moved this process from the threat of terrorism to full democracy - that is unacceptable to ordinary decent Ulster people - both Protestant and Catholic."

South Antrim result

David Burnside UUP 16,366

William McCrea DUP 15,355

Sean McKee SDLP 5,336

Martin Meehan SF 4,160

David Ford AP 1,969

Norman Boyd NIUP 972