Positive campaign behind record Alliance vote –MLA

Ahead of Alliance gathering at Stormont today, Ms Eastwood said: “People made their views clear in this election - they voted for Alliance due to our positive campaign, record of delivery and work on issues which matter to them, such as the cost of living crisis, health and the climate emergency.

“We are ready to go into Stormont on Monday and get to work on those issues. It’s now up to the DUP to step up to the plate and show they are committed to delivery as well.”

The Alliance Party almost doubled its representation in the new Assembly in what was the party’s most successful ever election.

In 2017 Alliance won eight seats but will return to Stormont this week with 17 MLAs after a 4.5 percent rise in its first preference votes.

Although some polls had Alliance on parity with the DUP on 18 per cent, Naomi Long’s party ended with 13.5 percent of first preferences taking them well ahead of the UUP and SDLP.

Alliance’s gains were at the expense mainly of the SDLP, the UUP and also the Green Party where they unseated its leader Claire Bailey in South Belfast. A significant scalp Alliance took of the DUP was in Strangford where the former’s candidate Nick Mathieson took the seat from former Education Minister Peter Weir.

Paula Bradshaw, one of the two victorious Alliance candidates in South Belfast, pointed out that the party had just over three percent of the vote in that constituency back in 2003 when it fell behind the Women’s Coalition in sixth place.

“It’s been a slow burn but we knew it was achievable and especially in the last couple of weeks when the momentum of the campaign started to grow and we were getting a lot of feedback that people were switching to us. We didn’t take anything for granted. We ran a positive and progressive campaign, and it paid off, “ Ms Bradshaw said.

The party also won seats in areas where there has not been a traditionally strong Alliance presence, such as North Antrim, where Patricia O’Lynn became its first ever MLA in the constituency. Her historic triumph also resulted in former minister and long standing DUP MLA Mervyn Storey being edged out in the sixth stage of the count.

In her victory speech Ms O’Lynn said the “shared future believers” had come out to vote for her and made it “a new day” for North Antrim.