Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, seeking unification with Ireland, hailed a “new era” for Northern Ireland on Saturday by capturing the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time in a historic victory.
With almost all votes counted from Thursday’s UK local elections, Sinn Fein has secured 27 of the 90 seats in the assembly.
The Democratic Unionist Party, which has dominated the Northern Ireland legislature for two decades, has 24.
The victory means Sinn Fein is entitled to the premiership in Belfast for the first time since Northern Ireland was founded as a majority Protestant state in 1921.
The centrist Alianza Party, which identifies as neither nationalist nor unionist, saw a huge surge in support and was poised to become the other big winner in the vote, with 17 seats.
‘Today marks the beginning of a new era’
The victory is a milestone for Sinn Fein, which has long been linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to remove Northern Ireland from UK rule during decades of violence involving militants. Irish republicans, Protestant loyalist paramilitaries. and the British Army and Police.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era,” Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill said shortly before the final results were announced. “Regardless of my religious, political or social background, my commitment is to make politics work.”
O’Neill stressed that it was imperative that Northern Ireland’s politicians meet next week to form an Executive – the devolved government of Northern Ireland. If none can be formed within six months, the administration will collapse, leading to a new election and more uncertainty.
There is “room in this state for everyone, for all of us together,” O’Neill said. “There is an urgency to restore an Executive and start putting money in people’s pockets, to start fixing the health service. People can’t wait.”
While a Sinn Fein victory would signal a historic shift showing declining support for unionist parties, it is far from clear what will happen next due to Northern Ireland’s complicated power-sharing politics and ongoing disputes over agreements. post-Brexit.
Under a compulsory power-sharing system created by the 1998 peace deal that ended decades of Catholic-Protestant conflict, the posts of prime minister and deputy prime minister are divided between the largest unionist party and the largest nationalist party. Both posts must be filled for a government to function, but the Democratic Unionist Party has suggested that he might not serve under a Sinn Fein prime minister.
consequences of brexit
The DUP has also said it will refuse to join a new government unless there are major changes to post-Brexit border arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Those post-Brexit rules, which came into effect after Britain left the European Union, imposed customs and border controls on some products entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The deal was designed to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. , a key pillar of the peace process.
But it has angered many unionists, who say the new controls have created a barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK that undermines its British identity. In February, Paul Givan of the DUP resigned as Prime Minister as post-Brexit tensions triggered a new political crisis in Northern Ireland.
Saturday’s results bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer, though the party kept unification out of the spotlight this year during a campaign dominated by skyrocketing costs of living.
On the unification of Ireland, O’Neill said that there will be no constitutional changes until the voters decide on it. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Friday that planning for any unity referendum could take place within the next five years.
Polling expert John Curtice, a professor of political science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, said Northern Ireland’s latest election results are a legacy of Brexit.
After years of inactivity, Northern Ireland has seen a week of escalating sectarian violence that many fear will worsen. 1:56
“The Unionist vote has become fragmented due to divisions within the community over whether the Northern Ireland Protocol is something that can be successfully amended or should be scrapped,” he wrote on the BBC website.
Persuading the DUP to join a new government and trying to pressure the EU to agree to major changes to post-Brexit deals will present British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a headache, he added. Johnson’s own Conservative Party lost at least 450 seats in local elections on Thursday.
Reference-www.cbc.ca