Voters in Northern Ireland go to the polls on Thursday in council elections that should be about potholes and dustbins but have been overshadowed by a Brexit stand-off that has paralysed the region’s politics for a year.
The nationalist Sinn Féin party is vying to repeat its success in last May’s regional assembly elections, aiming to overtake the Democratic Unionist party as the largest party of local government in the vote for 462 seats in the region’s 11 councils.
But the DUP, which wants the region to remain part of the UK, has sought to turn the council elections into a proxy vote to push for further changes to Northern Ireland’s newly revamped post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Following the electoral success last year of Sinn Féin, which backs the reunification of Ireland, the DUP has boycotted the assembly and power-sharing executive at Stormont in protest against the Brexit deal for the region.
Unionist politicians object to the post-Brexit trading arrangements because Northern Ireland is treated differently to the rest of the UK, which left the EU single market and customs union in January 2021.
The DUP maintains that the Windsor framework, agreed by London and Brussels this year in a bid to streamline post-Brexit commerce, does not go far enough because it still leaves Northern Ireland subject to EU trade rules.
After coming third in last year’s Stormont elections, the Alliance party — which identifies with neither of Northern Ireland’s traditional nationalist or unionist communities — is vying to consolidate its position as a rising force.
Naomi Long, Alliance leader, said it was “more vital than ever to come out to vote and send a message ransom politics isn’t acceptable”. Full results from the elections are not expected until well into the weekend.
Besides seeking to remain the dominant party in local councils, the DUP will also be hoping it can avoid losing votes to the Traditional Unionist Voice party, whose stance on the Windsor framework is even more uncompromising.
Peter Robinson, a former DUP first minister, urged unionists not to “dilute unionist negotiating strength when it is most needed”.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, has vowed to introduce legislation to copper-fasten the region’s place within the UK in order to assuage unionists’ concerns after Brexit put a customs border in the Irish Sea.
One senior British official said Heaton-Harris had not introduced the promised legislation because it was not yet clear precisely what would satisfy the DUP.
The election takes place against a backdrop of severe cuts to public services, including funding for nursing places, integrated education and youth clubs, in a region that already has the longest health service waiting lists in the UK and vastly overspent its budget last year.
London hopes the DUP can be persuaded back into Stormont swiftly, but many experts believe nothing will happen until after the unionist marching season in July. Even officials acknowledge, however, that a financial sweetener for the region is likely to be part of any deal to restore Stormont.
DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr said Heaton-Harris was seeking to “coerce unionists back into the Northern Ireland assembly” by setting a tough budget for the region, adding: “But . . . his strategy is failing.”
