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Sinn Féin co-chair Michelle O'Neill outside a polling station
Photo: CLODAGH KILCOYNE / REUTERS
In the local elections in Northern Ireland, a clear victory is emerging for the Sinn Féin party, which advocates unification with the EU's neighbouring country Ireland. After counting almost all seats, the Catholic nationalist party was clearly in the lead with 137 seats. The pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) won only 118 seats.
The elections took place on Thursday. But because of the complicated electoral system, the counting took place over the weekend. It is unclear when a final result will be known. Around 1.3 million people in Britain's smallest part of the country were eligible to vote.
Support for union with Great Britain is crumbling
Sinn Féin had become the strongest force for the first time in the parliamentary elections in Northern Ireland last year. The local elections are also seen as a test of the reform of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was sealed in March, which will keep the region part of the EU's single market and therefore have to comply with some EU rules.
Northern Ireland is currently politically paralyzed. The DUP has been boycotting the mandated unity government with Sinn Féin in the regional parliament for almost a year. The reason is that the party rejects the Brexit rules for the province, on which the UK and the EU had agreed. The Unionists fear that Northern Ireland will be cut off further and further from London as a result.
Thursday's election "dramatically changed" Northern Irish politics, the Belfast Telegraph newspaper commented. Support for the supporters of the union with Great Britain continues to crumble, while the Republicans are increasingly rallying around Sinn Féin.
czl/dpa/Reuters