The Final Results
All 108 seats have now been allocated. :
DUP 36
SF 28
SDLP 16
UUP 18
Alliance 7
Greens 1
PUP 1
Ind 1
It's been a dreaful election for the Ulster Unionists, who are down 9 seats on the previous Assembly. The DUP are up by 6 seats -- this will be seen as a very clear endorsement by the Unionist electorate of Ian Paisley's new openness to shared government. Whether those votes actually translate into an Executive on March 26th is anybody's guess. We've begun to hear from Ulster Unionist party members deeply disappointed with their party leadership's vote management; to date, no major player has called for Sir Reg Empey to stand down, but that sense of disappointment looks likely to grow from here.
Sinn Fein's new strategy has earned the party an additional 4 seats in the Assembly, with the SDLP losing 2 seats. I spoke with both SDLP and UUP politicians yesterday and today and they shared a sense of disappointment at being "penalised" (as one put it to me) by the electorate for taking a lead in the political peace process, while the "slow-learners" have been rewarded at the ballot box.
Also worth noting is the election of Dawn Purvis of the PUP -- the successor to the late David Ervine who publicised her own campaign as a "new dawn" for East Belfast. Some commentators found that quite a cringe-worthy slogan, but it plainly hasn't lost Dawn Purvis any votes. The Green Party secured their in the Assembly with the election of Brian Wilson. And Anna Lo of Alliance makes history -- the first member of the Chinese community to be elected to any assembly or parliament in the UK. Beyond Anna Lo's success it was a good election for Alliance more generally, with an increase in their share of the votes and an additional seat in the Assembly.
And let us not forget Bob McCartney who has already written his own today.
Comments
Unfortunately the 'slow learners' were the UUP and the SDLP. Both lost touch with the electorate.
Unfortunately the 'slow learners' are the UUP and the SDLP. Both lost touch with the electorate and haven't learned from their previous defeats.
Looks like the next Prime Minister of NI will be a Protestant Fundamentalist. How do liberal , ecumenical , pro-gay , pro-choice people feel about that ?
George you could ask the same question of the fundamentalists in the Free Presbyterian Church who think it's a disgrace that Paisley would consider shared government with Sinn Fein. I think you'll find that shared government and Paisley as first minister is an idea that sits more comfortably with liberal, pro-gay, pro-choice types than with fundamenalist, homophobic, pro-life types.
I know the range of opinions within fundamentalism but what I don't know is what liberal ecumenists feel about having a man whose views are anathema to them as their Prime Minister.
Thanks DD for your response.
Well since I am one of those people you are talking about George...I can't say that I am happy about it but that is democracy.
I find it very depressing that the DUP/Sinn Fein the 2 extremist/fundamentalist parties are the 2 largest groupings-the future does not look good...
Regards
DD
I was out for coffee yesterday morning with 3 friends, all of us are 22 year old female students.
Every one of us can agree with DD's comments about the future. The fact we have the extremist parties from both communities overwhelmingly winning this election is depressing. I know it's democracy, but a lot of apathetic and middle ground members of the electorate don't bother turning out, leaving us in this situation.
We're all disillusioned with the extremist parties, we can't see how they represent us, and all took the decision (independently, in fact we only realised this yesterday) to vote for the Alliance party. This, despite the fact that while a teenager, I used to laugh at their apparent 'sitting on the fence', I've come to realise now that the future HAS to lie away from divided communities and as long as the DUP and SF command the top spots in N.Ireland, I can't see how we can progress.
George, since I am liberal I can't object to someone holding office on the grounds of their religious belief.
So the straightforward answer is that the First Minister can be of any faith, or none, and that's fine by me.
Would I welcome a First Minister - any assembly member - who campaigned against abortion or gay rights? No. But in that context I'm disagreeing with their political views, not their religious views.
Nikki
I know I'll be accused of wishful thinking but......
Wouldn't it be great to have a loose coalition of the middle ground - AP UUP and SDLP and Green etc to form an opposition block to the bigoted dinosaurs?
Perhaps even work for a more solid center party and leave the constitutional issue to a 5 year border poll.
It is of course against the interests of the DUP and SF to work together as that will dilute their appeal and voters will drift to the middle ground.
alan
another AP voter
oh George, and the rest
are you so determined to see the clouds around the silver lining?
if you are really a liberal democrat then stop the whining and accept the voice of the people; both the DUP and Sinn Fein got massive mandates for their manifestos.
what do you want, a liberal totalitarian state run by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳?
I reckon there may have been no real alternative to the rise and fall of the various parties in NI to get this far in the political process.
Both the UUP and SDLP knowingly sacrificed themselves to tie Sinn Fein into constitutional politics and it appears to have worked.
Difference is that the SDLP were open about their tactic while the UUP was not.
Now, while the Good Friday Agreement called on republicans to disarm the UUP gave them the benefit of the doubt and were found to have been much too trusting. Military wing stayed.
Only the DUP was left to hold republicans to account. This they have done.
Did any of the bleeding heart liberals really want a fully armed fifth column Governing them? Peace at any price?
Bin the bleeding hearts if you are a democrat.
Both the DUP and SF got massive backings for their mandates and no doubt there will be more blood on the floor before things are finished.
I know of three types of Sinn Fein voters; the old hardliners; the new idealists who see its energy but know nothing of its past and the pragmatic SDLPers who give it their vote to help the political wing outweigh the military wing.
John Hume was happy for all this to happen if it meant peace; he saw no other way.
But come on, there has to be a foil to such a tiger and the electorate knew it; arise the DUP. After all, the UUP is in tatters.
Northern Ireland voters are very sophisticated tactical voters; the alliance party in upper bann decimated itself to save Trimble many times.
By no means all the people who vote SF and the DUP are traditional stereotypes of that party member; watch and see, I reckon they are pushing things in the right direction eventually.
PB
PS Breaking a rule not to talk politics here, all of the above is just a personal opinion.
Deja Vu