Anyone following the Stormont election results?

[percypig]

I’ve been voting for more than 25 years, and most of the time my vote has felt a bit wasted. There’s still so much division here, still so many driven by fear rather than hope. I don’t agree with all of Alliance’s policies, and no politician is perfect.

BUT - for Alliance to take a seat in North Antrim, to be 17 votes away from possibly taking one in East L’Derry, to take 2 in Strangford…and so on, gives me so much hope!

Was a great few surprises. Let's hope they now work on Monday!

Very interesting results. Unfortunately I think we are now in for a prolonged period of instability.

I think it's a great result. The interesting thing for me is that Sinn Fein only gained 1.1% extra of 1st preference votes but Alliance party gained 5.1%

Basically the DUP have have a disaster of an election and it's completely their fault.

Sinn Fein have the most seats but I'm delighted the Alliance party have done so well. It really give me hope that people are moving away from sectarian politics in NI

Alliance gains at the expense of Greens and SDLP. The latter really need to take a long hard look at where they are going.

Yes I've been watching here from Dublin so I'm not sure I should be commenting but I do have relatives from both sides of the religious divide living in NI.
So glad that Alliance have done well.
Am sad for the SDLP - all the hard work by John Hume, Seamus Mallon and many many others who tried so hard to make NI a better place to be living in.

I just hope the violence doesn't all kick off again. But I think it will.

@LadyEloise10 how do think people in the south view the north? And the prospect of a united Ireland?

I doubt the violence will kick off again - we've come too far - but I'm interested that's your perspective.

Watching from London. Hmmm.
Wait for it.

I’m Irish living in England with lots of family in the South. I work mainly with staff in NI (U.K. company - my office is in England but most of my team in Belfast).

None of my southern, catholic family are interested in reunification. They see NI as a different place and only use it to get cheaper products. One person does their monthly shopping over the border and they have no interest in it otherwise! They definitely don’t want to pay subsidies to NI and don’t really feel affinity to the place or people. They feel very squeezed as it is, and see people in the North enjoying much higher standards of living than they could ever dream of!

My NI colleagues benefit from professional jobs ‘offshored’ from London based companies ie payroll and other professional services. We wouldn’t be able to continue to employ them if they leave the U.K. They have a fantastic standard of living, Belfast is a great city. A lot of their family and friends benefit from the huge civil service which I don’t think would be sustainable in united Ireland.

Meanwhile my plastic paddy friend in London, who has studied the history, assumes the result is fantastic and will achieve the united ireland he’s always dreamed of!

I understand the heart pushing for reunification among some catholics, but of the hundreds of people I know, the case for reunification doesn’t stack up economically and socially. People have moved on and the two countries are so different, reunification will be painful and hard. Not even considering the inevitable violence that will ensue.

Can you elaborate?

I'm Irish, living in the Republic and I've been watching this unfold.

I actually think Sinn Fein ran a very good election and the results show it. They didn't once mention the border poll (even though it's the elephant in the room) and they focused their election on local issues - health, education, transport etc. whereas some of the parties in the election were very very focused on particular issues and were not open to transfers to and from other parties which basically made them unelectable unless they got the largest chunk of first preference votes.

Can I ask does the election system use the FPTP or the PR to elect officials for the NI Assembly?

I do wonder though if the DUP will live up to the "D" in their name and accept that they came in 2nd place and will take up the role of Deputy leader in the Assembly, without conditions.

They are hell bent on transferring the governing of NI to Westminster if they don't take up their seats on Monday.

Can I ask does the election system use the FPTP or the PR to elect officials for the NI Assembly?

They use a system called d'Hont so it dependents on how many seats they get how many ministerial roles they get and in what order they pick them.

Northern Ireland uses a form of PR called the Single Transferable Vote (STV). Voters can elect a maximum of 5 candidates for each constituency.

Single Transferable Vote (STV) is the electoral system used to electoral candidates.

The D'Hondt system is a mathematical formula which decides how the Northern Ireland Executive is composed. It is NOT an electoral system.

They are not the same things.

On the contrary, SF/PIRA regularly campaigned on a border poll well in advance.

The closer it got to the election....well, they just stopped mentioning it in Northern Ireland. But continued to do so outwith Northern Ireland, especially to an audience which is their biggest source of funds....US citizens on the eastern seaboard.

There WILL be conditions attached just as there were when SF/PIRA downed the Executive for three years with a set of changing demands each time.

They regarded it as democratic and they've done so multiple times since the GFA. This is the first time the DUP has collapsed the Executive.

If its democratic for one, its democratic for the other. That's how the post-GFA system works thanks to SF/PIRA and the DUP in that badly flawed St Andrews Agreement.

The system needs reform, especially as the centre ground has grown in a way not envisaged in 1997/98. The system itself is based on a sectarian headcount which leads to the right to nominate a FM/DFM. Suppose Alliance got 27 seats and more than SF/PIRA and the DUP....they wouldn't have the right to nominate.

Unless they challenge it under constitutional law. Hence, the GFA is NOT sacrosanct, shouldn't be regarded as such and should be reformed.

Yet SF/PIRA and the DUP will never agree to that. Alliance has had a bigger increase than either which they both feel threatened by.

I'm sad about losing Pat Catney, Nichola Mallon and Clare Bailey as MLAs. They all seemed to be very good at their jobs. Hopefully an executive can be formed quickly but I'm not holding my breath.

Using the term SF/PIRA clearly shows how far we still have to go.

No, it shows the reality of the situation which is that SF continues to glorify PIRA murders AND the fact that security assessments from MI5, PSNI and the Gardai all state SF and PIRA are both controlled by the Provisional Army Council.

These security assessments are supported and validated by the UK and ROI Governments.

Therefore, your implication it's somehow sectarian to refer to "SF/PIRA" is baseless and not supported by the above.

In this context, yes, there is still a long way to go to root out terrorist romanticism (Republican and Loyalist alike) and to finally eradicate the gun.

The real winner of this election was Alliance who was the only party to significantly increase their vote share. 17 seats is truly astounding for them and really vindicates my attempts to educate others that there are many in Northern Ireland who do not vote for the big two.

In other words, Northern Ireland has changed immensely and Alliance's selling point is to build a better Northern Ireland. This does mean maintaining the current status quo which is why a lot of SF/PIRA voters refer to them as "Unionists" which is ridiculous. I've seen DUP voters call Alliance "Nationalists" which is equally as ridiculous.

But I think it should be clear now that the big two are feeling threatened by Alliance. However, the St Andrews carve up still gives the big two leverage Alliance will never have.

See, the entire system is designed to collapse according to the demands of the big two.

This puts Alliance in a very difficult position. Where do they go from here and how can they continue to effect change if they can't get their hands on the levers of power that would be allocated to them?

Only coming back to this now, and really interesting to read different takes on the election, from here, south of the border and across the water.

I too am so encouraged by the increase in Alliance’s vote - actually this election I didn’t put them #1 because I’m in East Derry and we had 2 v good independent candidates (1 of whom was returned) but the fact that we so nearly had an Alliance MLA is astonishing. As others have said, Sinn Féin’s success is v different to the Alliance surge.

For years those of us in the middle ground voted without feeling much hope, so while I’m not naive enough to think an Executive will be formed and functioning within the next week, I’m am enormously hopeful, I actually felt quite emotional watching Patricia O’Lynn’s interview with the BBC yesterday.

Oh, and I also agree that the system needs to be adjusted - rather than being held hostage by the whims of the DUP and Sinn Fein, which have both leveraged their power to bring down, or threaten to bring down, the institutions when it suited them.

I’d like to see a coalition of the willing. Alliance, UUP and SDLP all have leaders and MLAs who have been effective as ministers and in committees, and although it wasn’t always rewarded at the ballot box (eg Nichola Mallon) we do have capable politicians who could govern, if given the chance.

The provisional army council are people. All parties are controlled by people not "visible" to the public.

Don't be flippant here. The PAC is a shadow group to whom SF ministers had to consult before they could answer questions as we saw in the RHI inquiry. That's not democratic.

The aforementioned security assessment also stated that SF/PIRA and the PAC still had access to weapons. No democratic party actually needs access to weapons yet SF/PIRA still does.

There is no comparison between SF/PIRA/PAC with any other party in the British Isles. Quite frankly, it's an insult to people's intelligence to downplay the PAC.

The PAC should not exist in the 21st Century. Their day is over and they failed in their unnecessary campaign of terrorism and murder.

The problem for the UUP and the SDLP is they can't seem to distinguish themselves enough from Alliance. It looks like a lot of people thought "why would I vote for a party that looks like Alliance when I can just vote for Alliance?".

Neither Beattie or Eastwood seem quite as capable as Naomi Long.

SDLP were the big losers of this election having dropped to below 10% for the first time in Northern Ireland's political history. Yet they were huge during the Troubles and completely outclassed the Provos throughout which is why SF/PIRA thought about murdering John Hume. Hume must be spinning in his grave.

Looks to me like Northern Ireland's moderates have increasingly found a new home in the Alliance party. That will likely continue to hasten the decline of the UUP and SDLP.

Ironically, the post-GFA history suggests SF/PIRA and DUP would at least continue to hold their vote share. Or increase slightly to stay ahead of Alliance.