Northern Ireland votes amid power sharing crisis

“Some day Northern Ireland will vote as a normal democracy”, said Mike Nesbitt, who stepped down as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party after his party’s poor showing at Thursday’s elections for Northern Ireland’s local assembly.

The result, which also handed fewer seats to a smattering of other parties, leaves unionists without a firm majority – and thus without veto power – for the first time since Ireland was partitioned in 1921, according to Reuters.

Stormont’s snap election has significantly altered the make-up of Northern Ireland’s devolved Assembly, with nationalism making major strides at the expense of unionists.

In her speech, May said that she would not allow the United Kingdom to drift apart.

“To the 225,413 people who placed their trust in the DUP, I say thank you. people voted DUP in numbers not seen since 1984”.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire are “part of the problem” at Stormont, Gerry Adams has said.

“The personalities as well as the politics are now poisonous”.

The DUP won 28 of 90 seats while Sinn Fein secured 27.

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.

Sinn Féin is so far insisting DUP leader Arlene Foster can’t be involved until the Cash-for-Ash controversy is resolved.

McGuinness led Northern Ireland’s government in coalition with Foster but announced his decision to resign after she refused to step aside pending an inquiry into the handling of a botched green energy program. Sinn Fein has pushed for Northern Ireland to bring in marriage equality and abortion in specific, restricted cases.

The decision to leave creates a big problem in Northern Ireland, with its busy and open border with the Republic of Ireland now set to become an external European Union border.

As details of Sinn Fein’s electoral success emerged on Friday evening, Mr McGuinness’s son again tweeted an apparent reference to his father.

Now, the province faces a fateful three weeks.

Voter turnout of 65 percent was the highest since the first elections immediately after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

The DUP maintained the top spot, despite their vote share falling as the Sinn Fein share surged.

After the party met at Parliament Buildings earlier, northern leader Michelle O’Neill said political unionism “must live up to its responsibility to share power”.