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Political party in Northern Ireland

The Green Party Northern Ireland (Comhaontas Glas Thuaisceart Éireann), sometimes abbreviated as Green Party NI, is a political party in Northern Ireland. Like many green political parties around the world, its origins lie in the anti nuclear, labour and peace movements of the 1970s and early 1980s. Since 2006, the party has operated as a region of the Green Party of Ireland and also maintains links with other Green parties, including the Scottish Greens and the Green Party of England and Wales. The party has a youth wing operating in Northern Ireland, the Young Greens. The party also has LGBT policies and an activist group operating in Northern Ireland, the Queer Greens.

The Green Party has four key values: social justice, environmental sustainability, grassroots democracy and non violence. It is considered to be more to the left than most parties in Northern Ireland. The Green Party has been involved in several major campaigns since entering the Northern Ireland Assembly, including clean rivers and anti nuclear campaigns, opposition to fracking, and fighting the austerity agenda. It has also campaigned against the development of incinerators at Belfast North Foreshore and Lough Neagh, and against proposals to extend the airport runway at George Best Belfast City Airport. The party has also called for greater transparency in politics, arguing that political donations in Northern Ireland should be made public. Northern Ireland is the only region of the United Kingdom where political donations are secret. The party has said it wants a citizens' assembly to examine if drugs should be decriminalised to reduce deaths. In March 2021, then deputy leader and now leader of the party since August 2022, Malachai O'Hara, said legalisation and harm reduction models should be considered as the "current approach is obviously not working". In 2020, drug deaths in Northern Ireland were recorded at 218 according to official figures. This was an increase from the official recorded figure in 2019, which stood at 191 drug deaths in Northern Ireland and 92 in 2010, indicating the figure had more than doubled in a decade.

In the Northern Ireland local elections of May 1981, Peter Emerson, Avril McCandless and Malcolm Samuels stood as the first candidates to use the Ecology label in Northern Ireland and gained 202, 81 and 61 votes respectively; the first in a large urban area, the other two in smaller rural constituencies. Emerson had previously stood in the same area in 1977. In May 1983, the Northern Ireland Ecology Party was launched at a press conference held in the Europa Hotel, Belfast, with members of the British and Irish Ecology parties in attendance. At the same time, the three parties put forward one combined policy on Northern Ireland, the first time that UK and Irish political parties had held a common Northern Ireland policy. In 1985, ecology parties throughout the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom changed their names to Green Party. The party became a region of the Green Party of Ireland in 2006. In 2010, the LGBT Greens NI were established: a policy group and lobby group specialising in LGBT community issues within Northern Ireland. The LGBT group dissolved in early 2012 as their main aim—pushing for the inclusion of same sex marriage within party policy—was achieved at the 2011 AGM after a unanimous vote. The party supported a no vote in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum. In February 2015, the Queer Greens party group was set up to become the LGBT issues and activist wing of the party. The group is taking charge of party policy on LGBT rights, issues, welfare, campaigning, lobbying and raising awareness. On 14 January 2016, the party announced that it had selected Ellen Murray as its candidate to contest the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections for West Belfast, making her the first openly transgender person to stand for election on the island of Ireland. In June 2023, the party got their first ever mayoral role when Áine Groogan was made the deputy lord mayor of Belfast.

The party's first electoral success in Northern Ireland was at the local council elections of 2005. Raymond Blaney was elected onto Down District Council and Brian Wilson, formerly of the Alliance Party, took a seat on North Down Borough Council. The party's third local councillor was Ciaran Mussen, elected to Newry and Mourne District Council. At the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the Green Party won its first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly, when Brian Wilson won a seat in the North Down constituency. Overall the party won 11,985 first preference votes or 1.7% of the total – a rise of 1.4% since the 2003 Assembly election. In 2009, the Green Party stood Steven Agnew in the European election he secured 15,674 votes, trebling the Green Party's share of the vote. none of which managed to secure a seat. However, the number of votes for Green candidates more than trebled. Brian Wilson MLA stood down ahead of the 2011 Assembly election, in which the party won a seat on North Down council, with their candidate Steven Agnew. Agnew subsequently stepped down from his position on North Down Borough Council as the party took a strong stand against so called 'double jobbing' or dual mandate; he was replaced by John Barry.

Election Body Seats won ± Position First pref. votes % Government Leader1996Forum None 3,647 0.5%Extra parliamentary None1998Assembly None 710 0.1%Extra parliamentary None2003 None 2,688 0.4%Extra parliamentary None2007 1 6th 11,985 1.7%Opposition Kelly Andrews and John Barry2011 6th 6,031 0.9%OppositionSteven Agnew2016 1 6th 18,718 2.7%Opposition2017 6th 18,527 2.3%Opposition2022 2 7th 16,433 1.9%Extra parliamentaryClare Bailey

Election Seats (in NI) ± Position Total votes % (in NI) % (in UK) Government1983 None 451 0.1% 0.0% Extra parliamentary1987 None 281 0.0% 0.0% Extra parliamentary1997 None 539 0.1% 0.0% Extra parliamentary2010 None 3,542 0.5% 0.0% Extra parliamentary2015 None 6,822 1.0% 0.0% Extra parliamentary2017 None 7,452 0.9% 0.0% Extra parliamentary2019 None 1,996 0.2% 0.0% Extra parliamentary

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionNorth Antrim 451 1.0 6

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionEast Londonderry 281 0.6 6

By election Candidate Votes % PositionUpper Bann 576 1.6 9

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionBelfast North 539 1.3 5

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionBelfast South Adam McGibbon 1,036 3.0 5North Down 1,043 3.1 5South Down 901 2.1 6Strangford 562 1.7 7

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionBelfast East 1,058 2.7 4Belfast South 2,238 5.7 6Fermanagh and South Tyrone 788 1.5 4North Down 1,958 5.4 4West Tyrone 780 2.0 6

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionBelfast East 561 1.3 5Belfast North Malachai O'Hara 644 1.4 5Belfast South 2,241 5.1 5Fermanagh and South Tyrone 423 0.8 5North Down 2,549 6.5 4Strangford 607 1.6 6West Tyrone 427 1.0 6

Constituency Candidate Votes % PositionEast Antrim 685 1.8 7Strangford 790 2.1 6West Tyrone 521 1.3 7

Election ± Seats won First pref. votes %1985as Ecology03870.1198903290.1199301,2570.2199707060.12005 335,7030.8201136,3171.02014 1 4 5,515 0.82019 4 8 14,284 2.12023 3 5 12,692 1.7

Election Candidate Seats won Position First pref. votes %1984as EcologyColin McGuigannone8th2,2360.31989Malcolm Samuelnone7th6,5691.22004Lindsay Whitcroftnone7th4,8100.92009Steven Agnewnone7th15,764 3.3 2014Ross Brownnone8th10,598 1.7 2019Clare Baileynone7th12,4712.2