Irish Examiner view: Could Alliance get its day soon?

Northern Ireland politics

There was an 'Alliance Surge' in 2019 when party elect party leader Naomi Long was elected as an MEP.

The Alliance Party in Northern Ireland has long been the bridesmaid and not the bride. But any forthcoming election may see it becoming the “all-community” party in the six counties so long sought for by liberals seeking to break the so-called orange/green political divide.

Buoyed by the ‘Alliance Surge’ of 2019 when in three elections (European, Westminster, and local) saw the party elect party leader Naomi Long elected an MEP, score an 18.5% share in parliamentary elections — just behind Sinn Féin and the DUP — and take 21 council seats, it has since gone on to even bigger things.

In the last Stormont election it doubled its representation to 17 MLAs and is now looking to further boost its popularity in next May’s council elections when it intends to further engineer growth in both Stormont and London.

Such progress, were it to be achieved, would help Alliance to crack the sort of ransom politics that has dominated Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement was signed and most especially in the last decade.

But if the party is to continue growing and gaining ground on both its main targets, it needs to broaden its support across all communities. Given the frustration in those communities at the absence of governance in Stormont, now might just be the Alliance Party’s time.

It will surely need a second surge in voter support in May, but also a reform of the North’s political institutions (something it may challenge in court) if it is to sustain growth and become the game-changer in Northern politics it wants to be.