Sinn Fein eyes historic win in Northern Ireland

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND Ever since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state a century ago, its governments have been led by unionist politicians who defined themselves as British.

But if opinion polls are right, an election Thursday will see Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist party that seeks union with Ireland, become the largest group in the 90-seat Northern Ireland Assembly. That would give Sinn Fein the post of first minister in the Belfast government for the first time.

It would be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence. And it would bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer. But it’s not what the party — or voters — want to talk about in a campaign that has been dominated by more immediate worries: long waiting lists for medical care and the soaring cost of food and fuel.

The economic crunch — driven by the war in Ukraine, COVID-19 pandemic disruption and Britain’s exit from the European Union — is also dominating election debate elsewhere in the U.K. Votes Thursday to elect local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales are a test for beleaguered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose popularity has been battered by scandals over lockdown rule-breaking.

Full results of the election, which uses a system of proportional representation, are not expected until the weekend at the earliest.