The Democratic Unionist Party councillor, Mr Sammy Wilson, has been elected Lord Mayor of Belfast. Despite recent speculation that the city would have a republican in the first citizen's chair for the first time, Mr Alex Maskey of Sinn Fein lost the recorded vote by 26 votes to 24.
At a meeting of Belfast City Council last night Mr Wilson, who served as lord mayor 14 years ago, said he hoped he could live up to the trust that had been placed in him to represent all the people of Belfast.
Mr Wilson, who was nominated by his party colleague, Mr Wallace Browne, attracted the support of all the unionist parties in the council, including the former Alliance councillor, Mr Danny Dow, who defected to the unionist benches after his party decided to back Mr Maskey.
A victorious Mr Wilson told councillors he was thankful no Sinn Fein member would be representing the city of Belfast as lord mayor in the first election of the 21st century in the council.
He said it would have been "intolerable had we started the 21st century with one of their number posing as a civic leader of the city they sought systematically to destroy" over the past 30 years.
The DUP councillor recalled that when he served as lord mayor in 1986 he had comforted the young widow of an RUC officer killed by the IRA and had also witnessed at first hand houses destroyed by the republican terrorist group in a bombing.
However, Mr Wilson said he would try to represent all communities in Belfast "as fairly and faithfully as possibly without compromising my traditional unionist beliefs and principles". But he said he had no doubt "there will be those rushing out of this chamber to claim the nationalists of Belfast have been denied a voice in this city".
Speaking outside, the defeated Sinn Fein nominee accused the unionist grouping on the council of clubbing together for a "sectarian vote". Noting the presence of two Stormont Ministers, Mr Michael McGimpsey and Sir Reg Empey, on the unionist benches, Mr Maskey said it was "an irony" that they had come straight from a Cabinet meeting involving Sinn Fein Ministers to vote for a candidate who was opposed to the Good Friday agreement and the Executive.
However, he claimed: "The Sinn Fein vote is on the increase in every constituency, and I am sure we will return in the local government elections next year with a larger mandate."
Before vacating the chair the outgoing lord mayor, Mr Bob Stoker, an Ulster Unionist, expressed his thanks to his deputy, Ms Marie Moore of Sinn Fein. He described his term in office as "an eventful year" in which there had been "one or two minor upsets".
The council elected the Ulster Democratic Party councillor Mr Frank McCoubrey, whose party is linked to the loyalist Ulster Defence Association, to the post of Deputy Lord Mayor with the support of the four unionist parties. He said: "This is a challenge for me and I am looking forward to it."