Northern Ireland election victory for Sinn Fein

THE political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Sinn Fein, has become the first nationalist party to dominate in Northern Ireland, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party lost hundreds of seats in local elections.

Sinn Fein won the largest number of seats in the Northern Ireland assembly, official results showed – and along with that the power to name its leader Michelle O’Neill as first minister in the regional power-sharing government.

The win was a historic first for the party. The idea that Sinn Fein could triumph in elections would have been unthinkable a generation ago. But the party has benefited from demographic shifts and has expanded its appeal by focusing on bread-and-butter issues while downplaying its longterm aspirations for the unification of Ireland.

A Sinn Fein win doesn’t have immediate implications for unification. Any changes to the status of Northern Ireland would require referendums on both sides of the border, and public support for a unified island isn’t yet there.

But Sinn Fein hopes it can build support over time.

The leader of the DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson, told the BBC that he would decide this week on his party’s next moves. The DUP was hurt in part by a splintering of the unionist vote.

In addition to the regional assembly elections in Northern Ireland, there were council and mayoral elections in England, Scotland and Wales.

In the rest of the UK, Johnson’s Conservative Party lost nearly 500 seats in local elections.

The main UK opposition Labour party of Keir Starmer won in Tory “crown jewels” in the capital, including Margaret Thatcher’s “favourite” council Wandsworth, and Westminster for the first time since it was created in 1964.

The general election isn’t until 2024 but these midterms are often an indicator of how the main political parties are doing.

This was the first big test for Johnson’s Conservatives since the emergence of a cost-of-living crisis and a “Partygate” scandal. The government faces three investigations into boozy gatherings that flouted Covid-19 pandemic lockdown rules.

The party is hoping to extend its 12 years in power for another term in 2024. |