Sinn Féin outperformed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in voting to elect 90 members of the territory’s National Assembly, winning the most seats, 27, and receiving the highest share of first-preference votes. This compares with 25 seats for the Democratic Unionist Party and 17 seats for the Alliance Party.
Vote counting ended early Sunday, with all 90 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly filled, according to the Palestinian Authority’s British news agency.
shin fen It is now the largest party in the council and can nominate a first minister for the first time. The party opposes Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom and supports the unification of Ireland.
“Preparations for constitutional change in Ireland must begin now,” Sinn Fein party chair Mary Lou MacDonald told CNN Friday night as results began to emerge. “We need to be aware of the fact that change is underway.
“It is my absolute determination that this change be entirely peaceful,” she added.
That day remains elusive despite the results of Thursday’s vote. Sinn Fein’s emergence as the largest party in Northern Ireland may nonetheless force a conversation about the so-called border poll.
Sinn Fein was closely associated with the Irish Republican Army, which fought a bloody three-decade military campaign to end British rule and unify the island of Ireland, although the party has since positioned itself as a populist left-wing political party focused on social issues in the North. and south of the border.
Her success in Thursday’s Northern Ireland poll was buoyed by a segment of the DUP, which has served as first minister since 2007 and has briefly backed Theresa May’s Conservative government in Westminster since 2017.
“Amateur organizer. Wannabe beer evangelist. General web fan. Certified internet ninja. Avid reader.”
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