Northern Ireland

Pressure mounts on DUP to restore Stormont executive

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with his predecessor Edwin Poots. Picture by Hugh Russell
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with his predecessor Edwin Poots. Picture by Hugh Russell DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with his predecessor Edwin Poots. Picture by Hugh Russell

THE WASHINGTON and Dublin administrations have joined what is expected to be a growing chorus urging Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to re-establish the power-sharing executive.

The DUP will today come under increased pressure to form an executive in the wake of Thursday's election which saw the party relinquish the top spot in Stormont's pekcing order.

Sir Jeffrey's party suffered its worst election for more than two decades, its share of first preference votes plummeting by 6.7 per cent.

However, the final seat tally of 25 for the DUP was better relatively than initial expectations suggested.

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Sinn Féin emerged the clear winner with a 29 per cent share of the popular vote and the retention of all its 27 seats.

The result means the party would nominate deputy leader Michelle O'Neill as first minister, the first time a nationalist has qualified for the role.

The Alliance Party had its best assembly election ever, taking 13.5 per cent of first preference votes and more than doubling its number of MLAs to 17.

The Ulster Unionists recovered in the latter stages of counting, ending up on nine seats, just one fewer than 2017.

The SDLP's vote collapsed, however, as the party saw its Stormont representation cut by one-third to eight MLAs.

The party's deputy leader and infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon also lost her seat in North Belfast.

Support for the TUV surged at the polls by 5.1 percentage points to a 7.6 per cent vote share, yet only leader Jim Allister secured an assembly seat for the party.

The DUP has said it will not enter an executive until its concerns around the protocol are addressed.

A statement from the US State Department has called on Stormont leaders to "take the necessary steps to re-establish a power-sharing executive", while Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said restoring full devolution was primarily the responsibility of the Stormont parties but that Dublin would do "everything we can to support the parties to find a way of ensuring that an executive can be set up and function".

On the protocol, Mr Coveney said the EU "has been willing to show a lot of flexibility over the last 12 months to try and find a basis for agreement".

The Fine Gael deputy leader was also unhappy about what he terms "threats of unilateral action, unilateral legislation in Westminster".

"What we need is partnership and intense negotiations to try and finally settle the issues around the protocol without dismantling an international treaty and international law, but by applying the maximum flexibility possible to the existing agreement, to ensure that it's implemented in a pragmatic and sensible way."

Secretary of State Brandon Lewis urged the DUP leader to nominate a deputy first minister to allow resumption of fully functioning devolved government.

He restated his position that the British government would like to reach agreement with the EU over resolving issues with the protocol, but said nothing has been taken off the table.

"It's for the UK government to do the negotiations, Jeffrey and the DUP and all parties in Stormont should get together and bring Stormont back to deliver on the domestic issues for Northern Ireland," he said.

Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said he was shocked anyone could deliver a message that the return of the executive can wait amid a cost-of-living crisis and needed health service reform.

"There's over £300 million sitting there, ready to go into people's pockets, and I think it's incumbent that we sit down collectively, because that's what people want," he said.

DUP Upper Bann MLA Jonathan Buckley said it had been "quite a good result" for his party, particularly given some predictions that his party could drop to 18 seats.

He called for unionism to "have a conversation with itself", adding "divided unionism in 2022 cannot win elections".

Alliance MLA Sorcha Eastwood said it had been a "fantastic election" for her party, while UUP MLA Robbie Butler backed his leader Doug Beattie, who had a close run in Upper Bann to retain his own assembly seat.

SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said his party had been on the wrong side of the tide in this election.

He said the SDLP had run a positive campaign with great candidates, but added: "Unfortunately it didn't work for us this time."

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