A veteran of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party has won a special election to fill a Northern Ireland seat in the British Parliament, defeating a British Protestant candidate whose father was shot to death by the Irish Republican Army.

Results announced Friday showed that Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy received 47 percent of votes among a field of four candidates in the predominantly Catholic district of Mid-Ulster. His Protestant opponent, Nigel Lutton, received 34 percent.

In keeping with Sinn Fein's anti-British stance, Molloy will refuse to attend the House of Commons in London. Molloy succeeds Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein deputy leader and former IRA commander who resigned to focus on his job as deputy leader of Northern Ireland's 6-year-old unity government.

The IRA killed Lutton's father in 1979.