REFERENDUMS on the future of the island of Ireland should be held only with a clear roadmap of what follows after, according to a report by group of prominent academics.
They said that a poll would have to be held in the Republic if Northern Ireland voted in favour of unification, although the two referendums could be held on the same day. In deciding to call a border poll here, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland must “act with conspicuous care and transparent honesty and so maintain public trust”.
They would have to “reflect on a range of evidence: notably election results, opinion polls – bearing in mind the reliability of different sorts of polling – and any votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly”.
The working group on unification referendums on the island of Ireland was established by University College London’s (UCL) constitution unit. It was set up to examine how future referendums on whether Northern Ireland would stay in the UK or become part of a united Ireland could best be designed and conducted.
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It takes no view on whether holding such referendums would be desirable or not, or what the outcome should be if referendums were to be held. Instead the constitution unit considers overarching issues such as sequencing timescales, out of date rules, campaign spending and the quality of information available to voters during campaign periods.
The group comprises academics from universities throughout Northern Ireland, the Republic, Britain and the US.
The constitution unit group’s chair, Dr Alan Renwick, said: “We have embarked on this work not because we think referendums are imminent—we do not—but because the whole process needs to be thought through well in advance.”
He continued: “The years of acrimony following the Brexit referendum illustrate the dangers of a vote called without adequate planning.”
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