Outcome of NI’s election too close to call
The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein appear to have notched up significant gains in Wednesday’s Northern Ireland assembly elections.
With 51 of the 108 assembly seats accounted for under the complicated proportional representation voting system (STV), the DUP, with 23 Northern Ireland Assembly members (MLAs) elected, appear to have made inroads into the power base of David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists.
Sinn Fein has won 13 seats, taking votes from the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which has won just one seat.
The UUP, which may have been hit by low turnouts in traditional strong constituencies, has 12 seats so far. Mr Trimble stands by his prediction that his party will have a majority when the vote counting finally ends on Friday.
A majority for the DUP would be a severe set back for the Irish and British governments, as leader Ian Paisley refuses to hold talks with Sinn Fein. Mr Paisley said if he wins a majority in the new power sharing assembly, he will call for a fundamental rethink of the Good Friday Agreement.
Dr Paisley said: “I’m not talking to Sinn Fein and my party’s not talking to Sinn Fein and anybody that talks to Sinn Fein will be out of my party.”
Dissident Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson warned his leader that DUP gains would send a “clear message” that the agreement must be re-jigged. “He ignores the result at his peril. I think there is a clear message that the approach the leadership has taken to the agreement has not won clear support amongst the electorate. People want a better agreement. This agreement hasn’t worked and I think we have to go back to the drawing board.”
Independent candidate Dr Kieran Deeny – standing to get acute hospital services maintained in Omagh – has been elected first count in West Tyrone.
His victory is a first in Northern Ireland political history. It is the first time a candidate campaigning on a single issue has ever triumphed.
