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IFG - Northen Ireland election briefing
The Institute for Government has recently published a paper outlining everything you need to know before the people of Northern Ireland go to the polls.
This data-driven analysis reveals the situation in Northern Ireland after the UK’s decision to leave the EU. In six charts, it finds:
- Northern Ireland enjoys high but declining public spending
- Attitudes to Brexit divide along sectarian lines
- Northern Ireland receives more EU funding per head than the rest of the UK
- Northern Ireland does not want a return to Westminster rule
- DUP and Sinn Féin dominance is unlikely to change
- Sectarian identities have weakened but the political system has not caught up
Akash Paun, IfG Fellow, said:
“The political system in Northern Ireland remains organised along the old sectarian lines – and when it comes to the ballot box, old habits die hard. This explains why the DUP and Sinn Féin have jointly led the Northern Ireland Executive for ten years, despite their fraught relationship. It will be interesting to see if the balance of power shifts after 2 March
“Our analysis reveals that the areas which voted to leave the EU in the referendum are also among the most strongly unionist parts. So it is fair to say that Brexit poses a new risk to relations between the two communities and the parties that represent them.”
This election is the result of the breakdown of the governing coalition between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, whose leader in the Assembly, Martin McGuinness, resigned as Deputy First Minister in January.
Under Northern Ireland’s power-sharing system, established following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the devolved government in Belfast must comprise the largest party from each of the unionist and nationalist communities, whose nominees jointly run the government as First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
The resignation of McGuinness and the refusal of Sinn Féin to propose an alternative candidate for Deputy First Minister left the UK Government with little choice but to dissolve the Northern Ireland Assembly just ten months into its five-year term.
For more information or interviews, please contact Nicole Valentinuzzi on 07850313791.
Associated documents:
