Although the meaning of nearly 50% of the seats in the Assembly has yet to be determined, the provisional count indicates that the nationalist formation of Sinn Fein, the former political arm of the IRA terrorist group, would have obtained 29% of the votes of first preference in the regional elections that were held on Thursday in Northern Ireland. The party of Michelle O’Neill, who aspires to become chief minister, shows the strong division of Northern Irish unionism.
Sinn Fein will be the party with the most representation in the Belfast Assembly in Northern Ireland. This is determined by the provisional count, which maintains that the nationalist formation, the former political arm of the extinct IRA terrorist group, has obtained 29% of the first-preference scrutiny in the regional elections that were held on Thursday in the north of the island of Ireland.
Although the official count continues and there are still about 50% of the 90 seats in the Assembly to be determined, the victory of Sinn Fein is already taken for granted, which is a milestone, since it is the first time in history that it has won the elections the republican nationalist party that bets on the reunification of the island and on leaving the territory of the United Kingdom.
The preliminary count data also points to a division of Northern Irish unionism. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) received 21.3% of the vote, while the Ulster Unionist Party won 11.2% of the vote and the Traditional Unionist Voice party 7.6%.
Brexit, which was rejected by Northern Irish society in 2016, has had consequences in these elections for the DUP, which continues to defend it.
“Unionism cannot afford this division. Seats can be lost because of it, even if we have common interests because of our belief in the union with the United Kingdom or because of our opposition to the protocol (applied on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland to avoid a hard border after Brexit, a measure that imposes more trade barriers between this region and the rest of the United Kingdom), “said the leader of the formation, Jeffrey Donaldson.
On the other hand, the Alianza Party, a liberal centrist party, improved its results and with 13.5% it established itself as the third force on the political board.
During the election campaign, the issue of reunification, a bet by Sinn Fein, was once again at the center of the debate, also by the unionists. For advocates of Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom, this is a pivotal moment, as Brexit, they say, puts the historic relationship with the British crown in jeopardy.
Michelle O’Neill could be titular minister of the region
With these results, Michelle O’Neill, the leader of Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland region, will run as chief minister, a post that has never been held by a republican nationalist in a century of history of the British province.
“I feel very positive, I think we ran a very positive campaign,” O’Neill said this Friday at a joint event with the party’s president, Mary Lou McDonald, who assured that the formation has won “the most important elections in all a generation.”
“We bring a message of change, of progress, of collaboration with the rest of the political forces. We want to thank everyone who has given us their support. These are the elections of a generation, and now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and work,” added McDonald.
Both policies were this Friday at the ‘Titanic Exhibition Center’ in Belfast, the Northern Irish capital, in one of the voting centers where the count is still continuing. There they rubbed shoulders with their faithful and with a mass of reporters and photographers who were waiting for the first statements from the Sinn Fein representatives.
O’Neill assured that he wants to “work in cooperation with others” to find solutions to the problems that affect Northern Irish society such as “the cost of living or health”.
The DUP does not want to enter an Executive led by Sinn Fein
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the majority party for the last two decades in Northern Ireland, has assured this Friday that it will not enter a government led by the Republican nationalists as long as the talks between Brussels and London do not end with the repeal of the protocol of Brexit in the north of the island.
“Until this issue is resolved, they can hold whatever elections they want, but there will be no government until we fix the protocol issue,” said DUP MP Ian Paisley.
The general lines of the protocol sought harmonization with European Union legislation as well as inspections and controls of goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom or third countries and customs duties on products entering this territory. from anywhere else in the UK. In parallel, the protocol prevents a hard border between the two Irelands, a key piece for the peace process.
This document is part of the Brexit agreements signed by London and Brussels and entered into force on January 1, 2021. During the Brexit negotiations, the United Kingdom and the European Union underlined the extraordinary situation of the island of Ireland and the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement, which put an end to the conflict, avoiding a physical border between the two Irelands and betting on cooperation between the north and the south.
However, the measure increases the controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, something that the unionists strongly reject. The extensive bureaucracy after the entry into force of Brexit generated product shortages and various political tensions on the island, especially among the unionist-protestant community, whose dominant position is at risk, an extreme confirmed by the regional elections on Thursday.
In February, the DUP forced the dissolution of the Executive and now, after the elections, it has been reluctant to present a candidate for deputy chief minister in case the official count formalizes what the preliminary data has transmitted.
Under the Good Friday peace accords, the parties are obliged to co-govern within the same Cabinet. Neither the post of Senior Minister nor Deputy Senior Minister can exist without the other. Although they have a similar weight, the symbolism of the incumbent minister has always been an oxygen balloon for unionism, which would now reject that position falling into the hands of the Republicans of Sinn Fein, specifically Michelle O’Neill.
England also held elections: the conservatives lost important strongholds
On Thursday, England was also reunited with the polls in partial municipal elections that had their sights set on the conservatives of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose popularity has been affected, among other things, after the ‘Partygate’ scandals, the parties in Downing Street in which Johnson participated during the pandemic lockdowns.
With the count almost complete, the Conservatives, known as the Tories, have lost 341 councilors to the Labor Party and the Liberal Democrats.
Although the elections took place in less than half of the town councils in England, according to a projection by the BBC collected by EFE, if they had taken place in all the town councils in the United Kingdom, Labor would have obtained 35% of the vote, a 5% more than conservatives.
Conservatives lose historic districts of the capital. The first results of the local elections in the United Kingdom show a less than anticipated advance of the Labor opposition https://t.co/xFvkQiG6Fr
– THE COUNTRY Inter (@elpais_inter) May 6, 2022
Johnson acknowledged this Friday that his training has obtained “hard” results but also “advances”.
“They are elections in the middle of the legislature. The results are varied,” he declared in an appearance at the exit of an act in London.
“We had a rough night in some parts of England but, on the other hand, in other parts of England we Conservatives have moved on and made significant improvements in places that haven’t voted for us for a long time or even never,” Johnson said, downplaying the loss of more than 340 councillors.
The ‘premier’, faced with questions from the press, “of course” assumed responsibility for the poor result at the polls.
In line with what was predicted by the polls, the ‘Tories’ have suffered a debacle in the city of London, losing for the first time since 1964 the district of Westminster, where the Downing Street residence is located; and the district of Wandsworth, a wealthy area of South London that they had since 1978.
The current leader of Labor, Keir Starmer, celebrated the “fantastic” result in the municipal elections and called his victory in some historically conservative districts a “turning point”.
Despite the electoral victory, Starmer could not celebrate the Labor advance because this Friday it was also learned that Scotland Yard, the London Metropolitan Police, will investigate him for allegedly having skipped the restrictions during the pandemic when he went out for a few beers with fellow party members to a pub in April 2021, while work meetings were allowed when strictly necessary.
#breaking Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer will be investigated by Durham Police over allegations he broke lockdown rules in April 2021 by drinking beer with colleagues, the force said pic.twitter.com/21Gc05jh5c
— PA Media (@PA) May 6, 2022
Scotland painted Labor red
The British Conservatives lost more than 60 councilors in Scotland, a balance that favored the Labor Party, which stands as the second municipal force after the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Douglas Ross, the Scottish leader of the ‘Tories’, blamed the poor results of the formation on the scandals carried out by Boris Johnson, who already asked for his resignation weeks ago.
“The Prime Minister cannot simply ignore the message that voters have sent, not just here in Scotland but across the UK,” Ross said.
For his part, the Scottish Conservative deputy Tobias Ellwood, stressed that support for the ‘Tories’ is suffering a “bleeding”, for which he demanded that the leader of the party call an internal confidence vote on his management.
With information from EFE and local media
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