Assembly election count updates

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/assembly2003/
http://www.ireland.com/focus/nielection/index.htm

vinnyfitz

The RTE one seems much better if you want constituency details.

For variety you could also look at the fancy BBC

mike65

RTE spent most of the day talking about this, dunno why
everyone knew the score beforehand and so far its panned out as expected with the hardliners on both sides winning at the expence of moderate progessive thinking.

I like Ireland so much I'm glad there are two of them...

Mike.

eth0_

Who cares. The whole thing is a bloody fix. I know lots of people (and also my sister in law) in work from unionist areas who got polling cards despite not filling in and sending back the form which says 'If you don't fill in this form you will not be able to vote'.
My friend (living in a loyalist area, who also didn't register) received a voting card, as did his ex girlfriend who hasn't lived with him for a year and wouldn't have been on the electoral role.

You could say it's just a massive **** up but the fact loads of people from my (nationalist) village didn't get a vote despite filling out all the correct forms. My sister had this happen and was told by the electoral office that it was HER responsibility to check that the forms had been received. She hadn't even had to post them back, an electoral rep went round the doors here.

Sinn Fein have apparently made press releases about this in the past days and weeks, nothing has been done.

It'd be worse if the assembly actually MEANT anything. But it's clear to me that this province is run by ****ing bigots.

eth0_

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/2347
http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/2319
http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/2334

Victor

I assume from the above you have an SF alligence - they don't seem to be doing too badly.

something in common with Florida eh ??

Sinn Féin of course would never ever have been involved in vote rigging / personation :rolleyes:

That said Sinn Féin appear to have got the largest number of first preference votes in Belfast.

On another note, I see David Trimble has topped the poll in his constituency and claims that the DUP has mopped up it's extra support from the independent unionists and not taken anything from the UUP.

mm

Victor

Originally posted by Man
On another note, I see David Trimble has topped the poll in his constituency and claims that the DUP has mopped up it's extra support from the independent unionists and not taken anything from the UUP.

Yes, while the DUP appears to have an awful lot of seats at the moment - 17 of of 39 - this is largely due to running a single candidate in most constituencies outside their Antrim homeland and getting elected in the first count ahead of others, but with no one to transfer to.

gurramok

Sinn Féin of course would never ever have been involved in vote rigging / personation

Funny how you single out one party for this despite the fact that there have been no convictions of any vote rigging/personation related to any one party up north.

Accept the results if the election no matter who gets what votes, after all its suppose to be a democracy.

What on earth has florida got to do with this election, the assembly election is also in florida ??

Victor

Originally posted by gurramok
Funny how you single out one party for this despite the fact that there have been no convictions of any vote rigging/personation related to any one party up north.

However suspicions have generally beeen in areas where SF is strongest.

Originally posted by gurramok
What on earth has florida got to do with this election

SFs accusations of wrongful disenfranchisement.

eth0_

Originally posted by Victor
I assume from the above you have an SF alligence - they don't seem to be doing too badly.

No I do not have a fscking SF allegience, and who I would have voted for is of no concern to anyone but me.
Don't be so presumptious.

Victor

Originally posted by eth0_
No I do not have a fscking SF allegience, and who I would have voted for is of no concern to anyone but me. Don't be so presumptious.

Soz, my bad It was you were pimping their press releases.

And no, I have little interest in knowing how any one person voted.

eth0_

Originally posted by Victor
Soz, my bad It was you were pimping their press releases.

And no, I have little interest in knowing how any one person voted.

I wasn't pimping anything. Someone sent me those links and I thought they were pertinent.

Villain

I'm afraid the Good Friday agreement is dead in the water.

DUP are going to have more power than anyone so Mr Paisley will get his way and tha greement will collapse.

By voting for the DUP the people of Northern Ireland and said they prefer violence to politics.

The DUP and Sinn Fein will never be able to reach agreement, there were at it on Prime Time tonight and the counting wasn't even over.

Do the Unionists of the North want the violence to come back, do they want the IRA to take up arms again???.

Because believe you me Paisley will drive them to it.

chill

One of our friends suggest a few months back that we spend some time of our holidays in Northern Ireland for the first time ever. We actually gave it some thought.

I can see now that that was a delusion.

If ever there was any doubt about it this election shows clearly how sectarian the people of Northern ireland still are.

Not enough blood has been shed, they still haven't learnt a solitary thing and they want to keep at it for another couple of decades.

Well so be it I say, I'm totally bored with them and I leave their hatred, bigotry and killing to them.

I hope we and the British don't waster any more time and money on them and that our politicians stop spending so much time and energy trying to drag them in to the civilised world.


.

mike65

Originally posted by chill
If ever there was any doubt about it this election shows clearly how sectarian the people of Northern ireland still are.

In the "bad" old days it was easy for the ppl of Norn Iron to delude themselves and fool the rest of use by saying "ah its not us its just those nuts with guns if they'd only stop..." Well since the ceasefires and the GFA its become every more bloody obvious it is them, the ordinary decent citizen, thats is the real problem...

Mike.

Cork

Originally posted by irish1
I'm afraid the Good Friday agreement is dead in the water.

DUP are going to have more power than anyone so Mr Paisley will get his way and tha greement will collapse.

By voting for the DUP the people of Northern Ireland and said they prefer violence to politics.

The DUP and Sinn Fein will never be able to reach agreement, there were at it on Prime Time tonight and the counting wasn't even over.

Do the Unionists of the North want the violence to come back, do they want the IRA to take up arms again???.

Because believe you me Paisley will drive them to it.

I agree. The electorate up there has not voted for partys who have done most for the Peace Process. Trimble & Durkan were advocates of reconcilation.

SF will become more moderate to woo Southern voters. The election vote has done nothing to advance the Peace Process.

You had Southern Politicians helping the SDLP - but who they they vote for? SF.

What singal are the NI electorate sending?

Trimble & Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I really don't give much hope for the SF/DUP.

I am very disillusioned with the situation.

Johnny_the_fox

DUP 30
SF 24
UUP 27
SDLP 18
AP 6
Ind 1
PUP 1
UKUP 1


Fair play to UUP, SLDP, SF - they are trying for change

the losers are my children (in the future) ....

Cork

It beggers belief. The SDLP stood by democracy on many bleak days up in Northern Ireland.

Are peoples memorys so short that they don't vote for partys that are on the middle ground?

Éomer of Rohan

A sectarian election. All I can say is that at least Cedric Bloody Wilson's NIUP lost out.

The election of Dr Kieran Deeney to West Tyrone with over 9000 votes, toping the poll is a bit of hope however.

On another not, the S. Belf and E. Belf candidates for the socialist party beat the bloody stickies and the Tories. I am quite pleased with that.

The question is now, if they form a government, will it be Dodds or Robinson who gets the post of first minister?

gurramok

Originally posted by Cork
Are peoples memorys so short that they don't vote for partys that are on the middle ground?

Well, its about time the british gov puts heavy pressure on the dup to be pro-peace, progressive and stop staying no.
The same worked to bring SF from the cold in the past.

Look on the bright side, majority(74%) of population still voted for pro-agreement parties on both sides plus alliance in assembly could help out the pro-agreement side by adding their seats

flogen

excuse my ignorance, but would it be possible for the sdlp and sinn fein to form an coalition? has this been ruled out?
its just that they are both pro-agreement, and their seats combined would give a majority, and on the otherhand, the dup are unlikely to join with the uup as the dup are anti-agreement.

or do coalitions not happen like this under the rules of the northern elections?

Flogen

Johnny_the_fox

Originally posted by Éomer of Rohan
The question is now, if they form a government, will it be Dodds or Robinson who gets the post of first minister?

Ian Paisley *should* be First Minster as leader of the DUP.... but it will not happen because DUP will not be in the same government as Sinn Fein.

<edit>
sectarian election?

Totally disagree.. because the people voted for the election.. DUP may be the main party but about 76 seats where for pro-agreeement parties.. which DUP forget.

</edit>

Victor

Unless the pro-agreement parties form the Pro-Agreement Party, I think we are in for debacle and inertia, which will get people killed.

While I disagree with the provos et al, I much prefer them talking than shooting.

Johnny_the_fox

Trimble & Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trimble and Hume maybe part of the process for peace – and been awarded for the agreement but people forget the smaller parties like SF etc...

Since the first agreement – people forget

1) The IRA have a big drop in killing against the unionist community.
2) The IRA have given up weapons

Never before have we seen a movement from the IRA – which is down to Sinn Fein.

Victor

The likely result of a Westminister Election tomorrow, based on Wednesday's results (not taking into account any shift due to tactical voting) and the effects of any pacts (the last option would mean SF & SDLP giving carte blanche to the UUP in Antrim in return for say East Londonderry and North Belfast).

In practice, a final decision on boundaries for 2005 will be the real decider.

Éomer of Rohan

Quoted from flogen
excuse my ignorance, but would it be possible for the sdlp and sinn fein to form an coalition? has this been ruled out?

First of all, they do not have a majority of seats and second of all there is no such thing as a one sided coalition government under the D'Hondt system; a unionist majority AND a nationalist majority have to approve every act before it can pass through the assembly, otherwise it doesn't pass.

Quoted from Jonny the Fox
Ian Paisley *should* be First Minster as leader of the DUP.... but it will not happen because DUP will not be in the same government as Sinn Fein.

Paisely does not want to be First Minister even if they DO form a government (which in his eyes can still happen if the SDLP come on board to renegotiate the agreement. Hence, it would fall to Dodds and Robinson, and whoever gets it will be the one currently emerging top in that particular power struggle

Quoted from Jonny the Fox
Since the first agreement – people forget

1) The IRA have a big drop in killing against the unionist community.
2) The IRA have given up weapons

Never before have we seen a movement from the IRA – which is down to Sinn Fein

So what? The IRA should never have moved beyond their original objectives of defending the community; in turning to liberation as a raison d'etre, they lost all legality they had, however little that was given that from the outset they were a sectarian organisation when they could have been cross community. Sinn Fein's moves were correcting past wrongs, NOT creating right from normality. The IRA should not have been killing in the Unionist community in the first place.

Cork

Sinn Fein's moves were correcting past wrongs, NOT creating right from normality. The IRA should not have been killing in the Unionist community in the first place.

This is an excellent point. The SDLP stood firm and did it's level best to advance the cause of politics up in Northern Ireland. What were SF doing???

Political Partys such as FF, PD, Lab & FG need to take on SF. It is about time they took the kid gloves off.

Blair & Ahern need to leave SF and the DUP come to an agreement. If not - Bertie & Tony need to bring in some form of joint authority.

The people had their say - SF and the DUP have now the mandate with much responsibility.

It is up to them now - to work together & come to an accomadation.

Villain

Originally posted by gurramok
Look on the bright side, majority(74%) of population still voted for pro-agreement parties on both sides plus alliance in assembly could help out the pro-agreement side by adding their seats

In a sense yes, but if you look at it closer not all UUP elected candidates are in favour of the agreement.

So basically from what I can see is nationlists by voting SDLP and SF want peace, the Unionists by voting DUP and also voting for UUP members that oppose the agreement are saying no we don't want peace we will never do a deal with the nationlists.

I think the reason people have gone from SDLP to SF is that they think SF can broker a deal, the SDLP don't have much to bargain with SF on the other hand have the weapons of the IRA to bargain with, some might say thats very sad but its true.

Tony Blair needs to stand up to Paisley, this man should not be allowed to drag the north back 5 years.

Villain

Originally posted by Cork

The people had their say - SF and the DUP have now the mandate with much responsibility.

It is up to them now - to work together & come to an accomadation.

Not possible Gerry Adams says he will talk to Paisley, but Paisley says he will NEVER talk to Gerry.

Paisley will drive the guns back into Politics.

Cork

This is why - I cannot understand after all the effort my Ahern, Reynolds, Hume, Trimble, Clinton, Kennnedy Smith etc - we are left with a political mess.

Politics is the way to go up in Northern Ireland. Both communities are as polarised as ever.

Voting for extremists is not the way to make political progrss.

Hardliners demand + demand.

This will not progess the situation up there.