LONDON (AP) – Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein made big gains in Northern Ireland’s local elections, repeating its success in last year’s assembly elections, when it first became the biggest party.
With counting completed on Saturday afternoon, Sinn Fein, which seeks the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, took 144 of the 462 local government seats, an increase of 39 from the last government election local in 2019. Its main rival, the Democratic Unionist Party, captured 122 seats, while the centrist Alliance Party had 67.
Michelle O’Neill, deputy leader of Sinn Fein, said the results were “thrilling”. He added that his party’s success was a message to voters that Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, which has been paralyzed for more than a year, needs to get back to business.
“This election was an opportunity to send a clear signal … to support positive leadership and a party that wants to get the Assembly going,” O’Neill said.
Belfast’s semi-autonomous government has been suspended since the DUP, which wants to keep Northern Ireland part of the UK, walked out more than a year ago to protest the post-Brexit customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country of the United Kingdom.
Under the power-sharing rules established by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, the main British unionist and Irish nationalist parties must govern together.
O’Neill said the DUP boycott of the assembly “cannot continue”. He urged the British and Irish governments to work together and help resolve the political deadlock in Northern Ireland.
“Public services are suffering, the public is suffering from austerity,” he said. “It is not a tolerable situation, there should be no more delays and I want to see a plan on the table of how we will return to the table to make politics work and to have a locally elected Assembly. “
Northern Ireland policy has been deadlocked over a protracted row over the issue of customs checkpoints introduced when Britain leaves the trading bloc in 2020.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with an EU member: Ireland. That border is particularly sensitive because of the history of sectarian violence on the island of Ireland, and Britain and the EU agreed to keep the border free of customs and other controls to honor the Northern Ireland peace process. However, there were checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK
This angered the DUP, which argued that the new trade deals undermined Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
In February, the United Kingdom and the European Union agreed a deal to overcome the political crisis. The so-called Windsor Framework aims to ease customs checks and other obstacles for goods moving into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
The UK and the EU hailed their agreement as a decisive breakthrough in their often contentious relationship. The deal also gives Northern Ireland politicians a mechanism, known as the Stormont Brake, to challenge new EU trade rules that could apply, a key unionist demand.
But the DUP rejected the deal and has continued to refuse to take part in power-sharing government.
Sinn Fein won the largest number of seats in the Northern Ireland assembly in May 2022 in a historic victory. It was the first time they had won the DUP, which had dominated the legislature for two decades.
