A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume III by Brendan O'Leary

Author:Brendan O'Leary [O’Leary, Brendan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192566331
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2019-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Appendix 3.5.1. The Election of David Trimble and Mark Durkan as First Ministers

On Tuesday, November 6, 2001, David Trimble of the UUP and Mark Durkan of the SDLP were elected as First Minister and Deputy First Minister. It was two weeks after the IRA had begun to destroy items in its arsenal. They had tried to be elected earlier, but their joint election occurred on the third attempt, after swift deliberations over the preceding weekend. A total of 99 MLAs voted. Among designated unionists, 31 voted in favor, against 29 who did not; all 38 designated nationalists voted in favor. This result provided an overall majority of 71 to 29, and the required concurrent majority. Angry scenes and scuffles followed within the assembly chamber and in its main hall at a press conference. The confrontations were between the DUP and MLAs from other parties, with DUP members yelling that Trimble was a traitor and cheat.

That morning, as its first item of business, the assembly had passed the following resolution:

From 5 November 2001, until the commencement of a review under paragraph 36 of Strand One of the Belfast Agreement, Standing Order 3(8) has effect as if it read: “A Member may change his/her designation of identity. Any such change takes effect immediately after notification in writing is submitted to the Speaker. Any subsequent change shall take effect seven days after the day of such notification.”

Upon the resolution’s passage, by cross-community consent, the Speaker announced that he had received three letters from David Ford, Eileen Bell, and Séan Neeson, MLAs of the Alliance party, redesignating themselves as unionists. The effect of this change of status would wipe out the rebellion of two members of the UUP, Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage, who had defied their party whip and refused to vote for their own leader and his running mate.x

The Assembly Record should be read by anyone inclined to underestimate the parliamentary skills of the DUP’s leaders, or of the other parties, or Alderdice’s nimbleness as a Speaker, proceeding under legal counsel and anticipating a potential court challenge.90 The previous day, the Speaker had ruled that the proposed election of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister would not be ultra vires even though six weeks had passed since the two had left office. In his reply to the MLA Cedric Wilson, the Speaker argued that

I would not be happy for a matter that I believed to be ultra vires to go on the Order Paper. [The legal advice that I received from senior counsel], which I proffer briefly to the House, was as follows. The requirement is that there shall be an election within six weeks, and of course we have had an attempted election within the six weeks. We are not in default on that matter. Does it say that after six weeks there cannot be an election by the Assembly? It does not, so the question must be: would this be a reasonable interpretation? The Northern Ireland Act 1998 makes it clear that after six weeks the Secretary of State shall propose a date for an election.

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