The DUP refusing to let Sinn Fein have First Minister means a December Assembly Election. Will the numbers change in a fresh Election?
What parties seats are vulnerable or who might make gains in any constituencies ??
Another assembly election might well clear the air and facilitate progress. Would SF be in favour of this though? As it is, they are in a favourable position even if little can be done.
No idea if they would. And no idea why it should matter.
Another General Election?
How would that impact Stormont though?
Indeed, but the 2 major parties cant even sit together in their national government. So i wouldnt hold much hope for change there and they would have to agree something.
What would they agree?
meeting isnt going to solve anything.
Why are NI Assembly and local council election votes still not counted overnight immediately after 10 PM on polling day?
Because that's expensive and unnecessary
this is it.
^^^ that's rather pitiful but it was good that he was called out on it.
Mod: I deleted a below standard post.
He makes quite a reasonable point I would have thought, in the context of this new shared island vision. Historically it's not something that might have bothered unionists overly when the boot was under the other foot, but this is now and we have new standards do we not? Bit of a sour puss on the lady sitting beside him.
When unionists were in charge, they gerrymandered local councils, didn't have a universal local franchise and abolished STV.
It is a 7 seater constituency, so quite proportional, and of course the unionist did win a seat likely with some help from nationalist transfers, they could campaign for such transfers instead of aggravating everyone else with Brexit nonsense and the like.
The cognitive dissonance at work in his head needs to be studied by scientists
Yes that was then, this is now.
When did two wrongs make a right in this brave new Ireland we're supposed to be looking to embrace?
What was the second wrong?
I think putting up candidates for election is a wrong in some people's view.
How is people fairly getting elected a wrong? How is it in anyway comparable to gerrymandering? Why are you anti democracy?
Overnight vote-counting takes place in the rest of the UK. So why shouldn't it take place in NI?
Because it is expensive and unnecessary...
If you think stacking a constituency is morally equivalent to gerrymandering, then Northern Ireland is far from being part of any "brave new Ireland" you sarcastically refer to; in multi seat constituencies it's quite normal to have multiple candidates from the same party - but it speaks to resting paranoia that of course, it must mean shenanigans in this instance. Is it over the top to have that many candidates? Yeah, maybe, it was a pretty aggressive move. Asserting anything nefarious is hyperbole.
Have to say SF’s vote management this election was brilliantly done.
Except in the areas where they left seats behind due to not running enough candidates!
Officially the largest party in Local Government for the first time.
Why would it be expensive and necessary in NI but not in the rest of the UK? How can what's OK in GB not be OK in NI? After all, NI is part of the UK.
more people vote for one party than another and therefore the party that loses (The DUP) doesnt like this idea of people actually voting. feck that oul democracy
It remains expensive and unnecessary in GB too. That somewhere else wastes money is not a reason to start
Overnight counting is expensive when the voting system is STV with multiple seats. FPTP is simple - count and largest pile wins.
While I do not approve of voting machines, there is scope for automated sorting of ballots with the hand counting being reserved for cases where there is a dispute, which is not the case in most counts. For instance, apparently SF would have gained control of Newry, Mourne and Down council with one more vote, you might need a manual sort in that case.
SF obviously making huge ground to middle voters. They realise the hardcore nationalist vote has no other option so can appeal to the middle by attending King Charles coronation and come out with "we represent all" and not fear of losing hardcore nationalist votes but instead just taking all the traditionaly more moderate SDLP votes. It would also appear they're taking more than just the SDLP votes from the numbers
On the other hand DUP cant. They see their strategy of being staunch retains vote. The UUP who back the Windser Framework took a hammering. The even more staunch TUV or up and would take alot of the DUP votes should they back the WF so it does not look likely the DUP will change their tune on the WF anytime soon. So no stormont anytime soon either.
So how can we get stormont back? unionists found the Anglo Irish agreement to be unbearable as Dublin had an input to NI affairs. St Andrews agreement says if no government can be formed it will be home rule from london with Dublin input. Perhaps London could give Dublin alot of input to NI to the point unionism prefers stormont.
Unionists say this situation of votes being split between 3 Unionist parties is not sustainable given SF is cleaning up all the nationalist votes. So which Unionist party is going to offer itself to the slaughter? Cant see any doing it. So probably looking good for SF to be the largest party for a long time to come.
Or maybe nationalists realise unionism is never going to allow them be equal and are coalescing around one party.
That’s the top party map for all local council elections in the 6 counties. How long more can the DUP keep places Like Tyrone & Derry & Fermanagh for that matter under British rule ??
It's not expensive to have vote-counting done and dusted at the earliest possible opportunity.
What is the problem? It’s how they decided to do it.
