Q&A: N.I. assembly leadership vote

Trimble will now have to wait to see if a vote goes ahead

By CNN's Mark Davies and Dylan Reynolds

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has been re-elected as first minister of Northern Ireland's power sharing assembly.

Q: Did Trimble win the vote easily?

A. After failing in a vote last Friday, Trimble needed to win majority support from both nationalist and unionist members of the assembly.

He succeeded on Tuesday after 31 of those members designated as unionist backed him, with 29 opposing his attempt to be re-elected.

Trimble won 100% support from nationalist members.

Q. Why did Trimble succeed on Tuesday after his failure on Friday?

RESOURCES In depth: Northern Ireland's troubled peace process

Trimble won because three members of the non-sectarian Alliance Party agreed to be designated as unionists for the vote. Usually they do not allign themselves to either the nationalists or the unionists.

But by agreeing to be unionists for the vote, there was enough support for Trimble to win.

Q. Who was voting?

A. The 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The largest unionist, Protestant parties, which support Northern Ireland remaining as part of the UK, are Trimble's own party, the Ulster Unionists, which has 28 seats, and the Democratic Unionists with 20 seats.

On the predominantly Catholic nationalist and republican side -- parties which want a united Ireland -- there is the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) with 24 seats and Sinn Fein with 18 seats.

Other parties are the United Unionist Party (3 seats), the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (3) the Progressive Unionist Party (2) and the UK Unionists (1). There is one Independent Unionist.

There are two non-sectarian groups, the Alliance Party (6 seats) and Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (2).

Most of the parties support the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 -- which set up the assembly -- but it is opposed by the Democratic Unionists and some of the smaller unionist groups.

They object to sharing power in the assembly with Sinn Fein because of its links to the IRA.

Q. Why didn't the vote take place on Monday?

A: Members of unionist parties opposed to the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 lodged a petition objecting to a new vote for first minister.

They said that after Trimble failed in his first bid to be re-elected on Friday, the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid should have called fresh elections to the whole 108-seat assembly.

But rather than suspend the assembly on Saturday night, Reid allowed it to meet on Monday with the aim of holding a new vote for first minister.

Q: What happened on Tuesday?

A: The assembly was told on Monday that because of the petition, no vote could go ahead for at least 24 hours. Hardline unionist also launched a legal challenge to a new vote, but that was rejected by the high court in Belfast.

That defeat meant the vote for first minister was scheduled to take place on Tuesday. When the assembly met ahead of the vote, some unionists tried again the stop the vote, but their move was rejected by Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice.

Q: What changed over the weekend after Trimble failed in Friday's vote?

A: Over the weekend, frantic talks were held by pro-agreement parties. Eventually there was an agreement by the Alliance Party, which is not allied to either the Protestant unionist or mainly Catholic nationalist sections within the assembly to re-designate some of their members as unionists in order to help Trimble.

Q: Why did that change the situation?

A: Under Northern Ireland's complicated voting system, Trimble needed to win a majority from both the nationalist members of the assembly and unionist members.

Parties are designated as either unionists, nationalists or 'other.' Trimble won overwhelming backing from the nationalists in Friday's vote, but two members of his own party opposed him -- meaning he lost the unionist section of the vote by 30 votes to 29.

But there are two parties -- the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and the Alliance Party -- which are non-sectarian. They do not ally themselves to nationalists or unionists, but seek support from all parts of Northern Ireland's political and religious groups.

On Friday, the two members of the Women's Coalition who sit in the assembly re-designated themselves as one unionist and one nationalist, but that wasn't enough to secure Trimble's re-election.

With three members of the Alliance Party -- there are six in the assembly -- designated as unionists, it was enough to enable Trimble's re-election.

Q: Why do some unionists oppose Trimble's re-election?

A: Trimble put himself forward for re-election after quitting earlier this year in protest at the failure of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA) to put its weapons beyond use.

When the IRA made the historic step of decommissioning some weapons, Trimble said he was satisfied by the move and would seek re-election.

But hardline unionists -- led by those in the Democratic Unionist Party -- say they are not satisfied by the IRA move. They are opposed to the Good Friday peace agreement and opposed to sharing power with the republicans of Sinn Fein in the assembly.

They wanted Reid to suspend the assembly and call new elections to all 108 seats. They say Reid should have called new elections after the vote on Friday failed to elect a new first minister.

But a legal bid to declare the vote for first minister illegal was thrown out in a court on Monday, with the judge ruling that Reid has discretion over when to call new elections.

Q. Why did the Alliance Party agree to change affiliation?

A. Alliance leader David Ford, whose party refused to redesignate on Friday, said he agreed to change the affiliations of some members to "protect the integrity of the agreement."

However, in return for their co-operation, the party is calling for a review of the assembly's cross-community voting system which forces members to sign up under the labels of "unionist", "nationalist" or "other."

The party believes the system appears to place a value only on nationalist and unionist votes.

Reid said a review would be held under the terms of Good Friday Agreement to look at the need for adjustments to the electoral arrangements and the assembly's procedures.

The review would involve all parties in the assembly and the government and any changes will require cross-community support in the assembly, he said.