THE LEADERS OF the five largest parties in Northern Ireland took part in a televised debate this evening ahead of Thursday’s election.
The five were Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin), Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP), Colum Eastwood (SDLP), Naomi Long (Alliance) and Doug Beattie (UUP).
There are 90 Assembly seats up for grabs across 18 constituencies but whether or not there’ll be a government at the end of it all is far from certain.
So what were the main takeaways from tonight’s hour-long BBC debate?
The question over whether we’ll have a government is somewhat of a sticky wicket for the DUP because it’s them who may prove to be the stumbling block.
On this issue, the other leaders sensed blood and repeatedly asked Donaldson if he’d “respect the result of the election”. They knew full well that he wouldn’t agree to enter government but the point was made and it made the DUP look rather out of touch on the issue.
To Donaldson’s credit he wasn’t put out of his stride and kept arguing that the Protocol was an important issue and one which warrants a boycott of government.
The other leaders tried to argue that the Protocol is between the UK and the EU and that Donaldson staying out of parliament because of it didn’t make much sense.
Long got a nice dig in by saying that Donaldson had more power over blocking the Protocol while he was an MP and underpinned the Tory government in Westminster
In what was perhaps the line of the night, Eastwood went further, saying:
Jeffrey’s waiting on Boris Johnson to ride over the hill to save him. Ask anybody who’s ever trusted Boris Johnson in his life how that ended up.
Based on the polls, Sinn Féin’s is looking very good to be the largest party after the election. The party’s strategy has therefore been to not say anything that might jeopardise that.
That strategy was epitomised by O’Neill tonight who largely attempted to stay out of the fray. Even on the question of a border poll, O’Neill tried to pivot to the issue of the cost-of-living.
The Sinn Féin deputy leader said she of course makes no secret of the fact that she wants a united Ireland but she was less interested in when that might be.
“I don’t get fixated on a date, but I’m very fixated on the planning,” she told moderator Jim Fitzpatrick when he pushed her on it.
Beattie used the border poll question to attack Donaldson by saying that it was he who seemed to be talking the most about it and using it as a “scare tactic”.
“There is no border poll on the ballot,” Beattie added.
The latest opinion poll published today was particularly good news for Long and the Alliance party, putting them neck and neck with the DUP in second place.
It would be a historic result for the party and would add weight to its argument that current structures in the Northern Ireland Assembly are in need of reform.
As part of the power-sharing structure formed as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the offices of first and deputy first minister must be shared between elected MLAs who designate themselves as either ‘nationalist’ or ‘unionist’.
It effectively gives the biggest nationalist party and the biggest unionist party a veto on whether there’s a working government.
The Alliance Party do not designate as either and if the party were to pull out a second place finish it would mean discussion over Northern Ireland’s system of government would get more real.
Long repeatedly sought to return to bread-and-butter issues during the debate and when she spoke about the need for joined up thinking like increasing public transport to give people more choices in healthcare several in the audience could be seen nodding.
Eastwood agreed and said while they can talk about the cost-of-living crisis and the health services, “nothing will be done about any of these issues if we don’t have a government”.
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