Green Party in Northern Ireland
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The Green Party in Northern Ireland is a political party operating in Northern Ireland. In 2005 at their Annual Convention and again in a postal ballot in March 2006, its members voted to become a Region of the Irish Green Party and also have established organisational links with the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party of England and Wales. They claim that in this way, their North-South and East-West organisation makes them the only party in Northern Ireland not only to support the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but also to live it through their organisational arrangements. The party currently holds one seat in the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly.
[edit] History
The party long met with limited electoral success, especially compared to the progress of the other Green parties in Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. They have won no Westminster seats in their history, and polled only 0.9% of first preference votes in Northern Ireland at the European election in 2004, coming bottom of the poll.
In the run-up to the 2005 local elections (held on the same day as the 2005 general election) they received a boost when they were joined by two independent councillors, Raymond Blaney on Down District Council and Brian Wilson (formerly a member of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland) on North Down Borough Council. Blaney and Wilson provided the party with their first representation at any level. In the local elections Blaney retired but Wilson held his seat, topping the poll in the Bangor West district electoral area, whilst elsewhere the Greens also won councillors on Down District Council (Bill Corry in Downpatrick, taking Blaney's seat) and Newry and Mourne District Council (Ciaran Mussen in Crotlieve), the first election victories for the Greens. All over Northern Ireland, they won 5703 votes, or 1%.
The party won its first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly at the 2007 elections, when Brian Wilson took a seat in North Down. He was elected on the 10th count, after increasing the Green vote from 730 to 2,839 first preferences. Overall the party won 11,985 first preference votes or 1.7% of the total - a rise of 1.4% since the 2003 election.
The party is led by John Barry.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Green Party in Northern Ireland (official website)
- Green Bloggers
- Greens working for peaceful progress in Northern Ireland (2006-12-13); Greens launch new structures and eye up three Assembly seats (2006-12-04)
| Political Parties in Northern Ireland | ||
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Democratic Unionist Party | Ulster Unionist Party | Sinn Féin | Social Democratic and Labour Party | Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | Progressive Unionist Party | UK Unionist Party | Northern Ireland Women's Coalition | Northern Ireland Unionist Party | Conservative Party | Green Party in Northern Ireland | Socialist Environmental Alliance | Workers Party | Ulster Third Way | Socialist Party | Communist Party of Ireland |
