‘Marked increase’ in turnout for N Ireland Assembly election

Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union but was overruled by a majority vote to leave in Britain as a whole.

“She has my full support, she has the support of the party, and most importantly she has the support of 225,000 people across Northern Ireland who voted for the DUP, who increased the DUP’s mandate”, Hamilton told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.

Sinn Féin nearly came out top in last Thursday’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

It was the highest turnout since the first election after 1998 peace accords that re-established devolved government in Northern Ireland.

“Catastrophic election for unionism; triumph for nationalism”.

Sinn Fein, a party primarily supported by Catholic Irish nationalists, wants Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland.

Sinn Fein has pushed for Northern Ireland to bring in same-sex marriage and abortion is specific, restricted cases – both things which are now illegal there.

And the significance of Sinn Fein’s moderate four percentage point gain has been amplified by the symbolism of the loss for the first time by unionism, in its several manifestations, of its overall majority at Stormont. If the DUP form a grand coalition with other evangelical Christians in the Ulster Unionist Party and the Traditional Unionist Voice, blocking the reform is still possible but will be harder to enact.

If the former partners in government are again returned as the main players, they will have three weeks to resolve their multiple differences and form a new administration.

“As Ian Paisley famously told Martin McGuinness, we don’t need Englishmen to govern us”.

If an agreement can not be reached, Northern Ireland faces a return to the polls for yet another election – or a potential return to direct rule for a lengthy period of time.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland got 12, 10 and 8 seats, respectively, with the rest being shared among the other minor parties and one independent candidate.

Almost two thirds of the electorate voted in yesterday’s poll – the power-sharing executive collapsed in January – after Sinn Fein quit.

Stressing that any decision to step aside temporarily or quit the party leadership would be “entirely her call”, he added: “I have no doubt Arlene herself is hurting”.

Sinn Fein has also been in conflict with the DUP over its support for British-pushed austerity measures and the lack of progress in equality for the Catholic minority.

The possibility of a return to checkpoints has stirred memories of The Troubles, three decades of strife over British control of Northern Ireland, in which more than 3,500 people were killed.

Northern Ireland voted remain in the June EU poll by 56% to 44%.