Northern Ireland Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly (English: Northern Ireland Assembly; Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann; Scots: Norlin Airlann Semmlie ) is the parliament of the province of Northern Ireland. It has far-reaching legislative powers in areas that are not explicitly reserved to the UK Parliament. Furthermore, the Assembly elects the Northern Ireland government. It has its headquarters in Belfast and meets at Stormont, a suburb of the city.

The current Parliament was established by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which was to end the three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland. It rests on the principle of concordance, to ensure that the two main political groups in Northern Ireland, the Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists, are part of the government. It is a single chamber parliament, consisting of 108 members. The election shall be held by a Transferable Einzelstimmgebung within the meaning of proportional representation.

The Assembly has been suspended several times, the longest from October 2002 to May 2007. During the suspension of their powers were transferred to the British Northern Ireland Ministry over. Due to the St Andrew's Agreement of November 2006 2007 new elections were held in March and restored the powers of the Assembly.

History

Predecessor

There have been several local governments in recent stories of Northern Ireland, the first in 1921 formed with the Government of Ireland Act. It was after the partition of Ireland Ulster an autonomous government conceded ( Home Rule ), while established in the south of the Irish Free State. From June 1921 until March 1972, the Parliament of Northern Ireland existed as a legislative body and was divided into two chambers. There was a majority vote and the boundaries of the constituencies were adjusted such that the in any case of the minority Catholics were further disadvantaged ( gerrymandering ). Thus, this Parliament was dominated by the Protestant UUP, constantly striving to put the government at this time. The Parliament, which consisted of two chambers, was suspended in March 1972 after the Bloody Sunday and finally dissolved in 1973.

Shortly after the cancellation of this first Parliament there have been calls to restore self-government and to share power between unionists and nationalists. A 1973 created meeting was canceled a year later, as radicals of both sides of her refused. 1982, another meeting was set up, an organ with low skills, which was disbanded in 1986 due to the low support from the Catholic side.

The modern meeting

The modern Northern Ireland Assembly was elected in the wake of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement for the first time on 25 June 1998 and held its first meeting on 1 July of the same year. All parties in Northern Ireland who supported the agreement and have pledged to renounce violence, in this case the opportunity were given equal rights to send delegates to the regional parliament. The meeting lasted until December 2, 1999, however, only " in the shadow " because the meeting was delegate their tasks only at this time. Since then, the parliament was dissolved several times by the British government for the time being:

The work of the Assembly was again hampered by the conflict between the Protestant parties on one side and allied with the Catholic Sinn Fein IRA on the other side. The main complaint was the process of the paramilitary IRA had not fully disarmed and renounced violence. The last and longest suspension of the meeting took place, had been expressed as allegations, employees of Sinn Fein would spy for the IRA and withdrew the ministers of the UUP because of that. In November 2006, the members of the Assembly were again to be involved together at the St Andrew's Agreement. On the basis of this Agreement took place on March 7, 2007 elections and on 26 March, the self-government with the meeting of the deputies was restored.

Distribution of seats the parties

The composition and powers of the Assembly shall be held in the Northern Ireland Act. The 108 members are elected in 18 six- member constituencies. The constituencies are similar to those for the election of the House. After each election, the Assembly must meet within eight days. You can even dissolve by a two - thirds majority. You must be canceled automatically if it fails to elect a head of government within six weeks. The elections will be announced by the Northern Ireland Minister. Each member must sign at the beginning of the legislative period in one of the three groups " Unionists ", " nationalists " or " Other ". A Member may change the group per period more than once. Currently there are 56 unionists in the Assembly, 43 nationalists and 9 others.

The political landscape of Northern Ireland is dominated traditional denominational. The established parties like the British Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats play no role there and also ( with the exception of the Conservatives ) to not candidates for elections.

Since 1998, elections were held four times for the Assembly in Northern Ireland. They had the following results:

Responsibilities

The Assembly has legislative competence and is responsible for the choice of government. The First Minister and his deputy are elected by concordance. The two largest units, ie unionists and nationalists beat each case before a candidate for one of the two offices. The rest of the Minister is not selected, then determine the major parties a number of members of the government that matches their strength in Parliament.

In legislation the three areas can be distinguished: Transferred responsibilities lie solely at the meeting; Reserved powers may be transferred in the future of the Assembly; Excluded responsibilities continue to be reserved to the UK Parliament. Laws which have been lawfully adopted by the Assembly shall be signed by the Queen. All laws, which were adopted illegally, are rejected by the Northern Ireland Minister.

Transfer:

  • Work
  • Education
  • Finances
  • Health
  • Trade
  • Justice and Police ( since 2010)
  • Arts and Culture
  • Agriculture
  • Regional Development
  • Social
  • Environment

Reserved:

  • Education
  • International trade
  • Coastal and seabed
  • Post and telecommunications
  • Consumer Protection

Except:

  • International Relations
  • International treaties
  • Order and Title
  • Citizenship, immigration and asylum
  • Controlling the overall state
  • Succession
  • Defence and Armed Forces
  • Suffrage
  • Currency
Government of Ireland Act 1920 Ulster Unionist Party Northern Ireland Act (1998) Democratic Unionist Party Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Green Party in Northern Ireland Traditional Unionist Voice Sinn Féin Progressive Unionist Party Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister
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