Alliance Party support helped elect Mr Martin Morgan of the SDLP' as Lord Mayor of Belfast last night. He succeeds Mr Alex Maskey of Sinn Féin to the post and is only the second SDLP mayor of Belfast.
The Alliance Party used its three votes to side with the SDLP and Sinn Féin in choosing the 36-year-old north Belfast representative over Mr Bob Stoker of the UUP and Mr Robin Newton of the DUP.
The votes of all the SDLP members, in addition to support from Sinn Féin and Alliance, totalled 26, an overall majority among the 51 city councillors. The Ulster Unionist candidate secured 14 votes and Mr Newton 10.
The Alliance members held a meeting just before councillors gathered in the chamber, but kept their voting intentions secret until the outgoing mayor called on them to name their preferred candidate.
On taking the chair of the council and the Lord Mayor's chain of office, Mr Morgan thanked what he called "the alliance" that supported him. He also pledged himself to continuing with "policies of inclusiveness" begun by his party colleague, Mr Alban Maginness, who was lord mayor in 1997. He called on councillors to help create "a common agenda" for the people of Belfast and announced a process of consultation with the other parties to agree common approaches to the city's problems.
He also vowed to include the voluntary sector and the trade-union movement in advancing the civic life of the city.
Ms Margaret Crooks, a South Belfast Ulster Unionist, was then elected deputy Lord Mayor. She secured 35 votes from her own party and from Alliance, Sinn Féin and the SDLP. She defeated a DUP candidate, the Rev Eric Smith, who won 15 votes.
Mr Morgan said he would work on relations with other cities throughout Ireland. It was his intention, he said, to contact other mayors and build links North and South. He said it was time to "put aside nationalism and unionism. The key message from the SDLP and I as an SDLP Lord Mayor is that, in partnership with other political parties on this council, and with our strategic social partners, [we will] create a common agenda for all of the citizens of this city.
"We now live in a multicultural society that has transcended the simple issues of Catholic and Protestant. We will . . . support those communities and those minorities."