Ulster chaos fears as Sinn Fein ‘set to win’
MINISTERS are braced for chaos in Northern Ireland with Sinn Fein set to be declared the winner in Stormont elections.
Sinn Fein is on course to become the largest party in Ulster for the first time, giving it the right to nominate the province’s first minister.
This could end the fragile power-sharing arrangement as the Democratic Unionist Party, likely to remain the largest unionist party, could refuse to nominate a deputy first minister.
As well as being opposed to playing second fiddle to republicans, the DUP is unwilling to join the province’s government in an ongoing row over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol. It means Ulster could face political upheaval with no ruling executive, causing issues in London, Brussels and Belfast.
Voters went to the polls yesterday to elect 90 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont, which was set up under the Good Friday Agreement. These members, who appoint the assembly’s executive, have powers to legislate over areas including health, education and the environment.
The executive can legally function only if it is made up of representatives from the main unionist and nationalist parties. The Stormont administration has collapsed several times because of major disagreements between the factions.
For three of the past five years, there was no assembly after Sinn Fein pulled out. This year, the DUP’s First Minister, Paul Givan, resigned in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements, leaving the executive – with Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill remaining in post as deputy first minister – unable to function fully.
The ultimate goal of Sinn Fein, which emerged as the political wing of the provisional IRA during the Troubles, is for Northern Ireland to unite with the Republic of Ireland. The DUP – which wants the province to stay part of the United Kingdom – has signalled it may not return to government until the Northern Ireland Protocol is changed.
The deal, which is part of the Brexit agreement, creates a trade border down the Irish Sea which unionists see as a step closer to a united Ireland.
Boris Johnson is understood to favour giving talks with the European Union ‘one last chance’ before introducing legislation to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol to allow power-sharing to resume.
‘Facing political upheaval’