Opinion

Jim Gibney: Drop in nationalist vote a cause for concern

While the leadership of Sinn Féin, including Martin McGuinness, will view last week’s election as a remarkable achievement - and in many areas the turnout and vote management was incredible – it will nonetheless be very worried that its vote was down by 2.9 per cent and the overall nationalist vote was down by 5 per cent. Picture by Niall Carson, Press Association
While the leadership of Sinn Féin, including Martin McGuinness, will view last week’s election as a remarkable achievement - and in many areas the turnout and vote management was incredible – it will nonetheless be very worried that its While the leadership of Sinn Féin, including Martin McGuinness, will view last week’s election as a remarkable achievement - and in many areas the turnout and vote management was incredible – it will nonetheless be very worried that its vote was down by 2.9 per cent and the overall nationalist vote was down by 5 per cent. Picture by Niall Carson, Press Association

IN my last article before the election I argued that the nationalist electorate needed a ‘unity of purpose’ similar to that which saw the election of Bobby Sands in Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

Bobby Sands would not have been elected had the people not acted as one when they went to the polls.

They acted as one despite the fact that they were loyal to different parties: the SDLP and independents like the late Frank Maguire, whose death led to the by-election, which saw Bobby elected.

The imperative was to save Bobby’s life by electing him. The imperative and its immediacy was the trigger for nationalist unity.

‘Unity of purpose’ was to emerge in another setting when the leader of the SDLP John Hume and the leader of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams joined forces and delivered the peace process.

The imperative was peace. Its pursuit was the trigger for unity of purpose.

This unity engendered great hope amongst the nationalist people and raised their expectations of change to unprecedented levels.

Their morale was high because the Hume-Adams entente brought unity of purpose to the leaders of northern nationalists and was a significant factor in changing northern society.

During this period the high morale of northern nationalists was an engine driving forward change on many fronts which benefited all the people - unionists and nationalists. Nationalists were engaged; were motivated.

The high turnout by nationalists at elections especially for the assembly in 2003, 2007 and 2011 reflected this.

And while the leadership of Sinn Féin will view last week’s election as a remarkable achievement - and in many areas the turnout and vote management was incredible – it will nonetheless be very worried that its vote was down by 2.9 per cent and the overall nationalist vote was down by 5 per cent.

Remarkable is certainly not the mood the SDLP will be in as it surveys its election ‘car-crash’.

The SDLP is at its most unpopular in its history. It has lost its way. It has no vision. Its message is obsessively anti Sinn Féin and consequently demoralising.

If its former supporters were voting Sinn Féin then I would not be concerned because the broad interests of the nationalist people and its full political strength would be represented in the assembly and the executive.

But that is not the case. Many nationalists are sitting at home. They are demotivated.

There are many reasons for this: a lack of unity of purpose between Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Irish government on what could be loosely described as a ‘nationalist rights agenda’.

The impact on the nationalist working classes of the Tory government’s austerity measures.

Despite Sinn Fein’s best efforts to protect public services and those on welfare the cuts had a negative impact and this was reflected in support for People Before Profit and other left wing candidates.

The bickering at the assembly and the negative coverage by some sections of the media and the failure of unionist parties to fully embrace reconciliation as nationalists have are also factors.

Other issues of huge concern to nationalists and negatively impacting on them is the refusal of the British government, backed by unionists, to resolve the legacy issue for relatives who lost loved ones in the conflict.

With the election over this requires immediate attention and resolution.

So too does the future of the Long Kesh site which has been mothballed because the DUP were afraid of Jim Allister – an obvious contrived fear now.

And the limbo status of former political prisoners also needs to end. They must be fully accepted as equal members of society. The blame game must end.

The election has revealed that nationalists are at another one of those points – a Bobby Sands moment, a Hume/Adams moment.

It requires a ‘unity of purpose’ response with a difference to that which was required before.

The leadership of the SDLP is changing but its focus needs to address the old yet pertinent issues produced by partition. It will find an obvious ally in Sinn Féin.

And Sinn Féin must continue to lead the opposition to austerity in the executive, in the assembly with other like-minded MLAs and outside the assembly with the trade unions and others in meaningful solidarity actions with the unemployed and homeless.