VOTES will be cast across Northern Ireland today – but the results will not be known until the weekend.
Counting for the 108 Stormont seats will not begin until 8am tomorrow, giving 276 candidates an agonising wait to discover if they will become Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).
The parliament’s power-sharing structure requires the two largest parties to work together and, unless the polls are wrong, this will be the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein again.
Last time around Sinn Fein took 29 seats to the DUP’s 38, but since then Gerry Adams’ party managed to secure a larger percentage of the vote at the 2014 council and European elections.
However, Adams was forced off campaign topics this week after using a racial slur on Twitter after watching Django Unchained.
The veteran politician apologised and said his message had been about “the struggle for African Americans and people back here at home”, adding: “I’ve never seen myself as white. That’s only skin deep. I’m a human being.”
He went on: “If people want to attack me over the use of the N-word fair enough, but on all of the other issues if people want to have a debate, I’m happy to have that debate.”
The incident has been a distraction from the issues of the campaign as the DUP’s Arlene Foster fights to remain as First Minister for the next five years.
There is overall consensus on issues like reducing corporation tax in line with the level in the Republic of Ireland and the parties are signed up to a broad programme under the Fresh Start agreement.
However, the election remains a contest with Foster warning that if Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness takes the top job “unionists would be in a minority in the executive”. Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, she said: “Sinn Fein have been deliberately downplaying expectations in order to lull unionists into a false sense of security, but you can be sure that in this, the 100th anniversary of the Easter rebellion, their goal is to win this election.
“You can be certain that were Martin McGuinness to become First Minister this would be headline news not just in Northern Ireland, but right around the world.”
Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has accused the DUP of running “Project Scaremonger” and Jim Allister of Trade Unionist Voice (TUV) has also accused his rival of using “scare tactics”. Meanwhile, activists on the ground are campaigning on issues including welfare cuts and ways to tackle paramilitarism.
But voter Rachel Lee, a Strathclyde University graduate, says the vote push has been “low key” in her area – where allegiances are so secure she is “unlikely to see any real change in representatives”.
The mother-of-three said: “No-one has canvassed our house and people are talking more about the EU referendum rather than local elections.
“The big issues this campaign are equal marriage, access to abortion, corporation tax and health. People want to talk about real social issues, not just flags, parades and the past.
“Since this is the first opportunity people born in the year of the Good Friday Agreement can vote, the focus on these issues maybe show that we are finally starting to transition to a normal society rather than considering ourselves post-conflict.
“They need to put the past behind them and look at what kind of country we are leaving for future generations who seem to care more about education, health, environment, employment and training opportunities and equality rather than a conflict that ended before they were born.”
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