Election results coming in…

Posted by Lisa on Mar 08 2007 under Election, Election goings on, Alliance Party, DUP, Green Party, SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP, PUP, Parties

After nearly six hours of counting, the results of the NI elections are beginning to come through.

Get the most up to date info on the BBC election website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/nielection/html/main.stm

The Assembly election and human rights

Posted by Feargal O'Kane on Mar 08 2007 under Human rights, Alliance Party, DUP, Green Party, SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP, PUP, Parties, Manifesto

Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty International has an interesting post on human rights in Northern Ireland and whether this assembly election will make any difference.

Human rights have always been part of, what is now called, the ‘contested space’ in Northern Ireland, writes Patrick Corrigan. Sure, isn’t that how our recent local difficulties erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s? Dispute over civil and political rights for all citizens, bleeding (literally) into … street disorder … the emergence of paramilitary organisations and … repressive tactics by the State (by the way, feel free to pick your own chronological order for these aforementioned events – for our current purposes, it doesn’t really matter), leading to a 25 year (and counting) cycle of violence and stalemate.

Anyway, after a dozen years of peace-processing, with polls opening in about 30 hours, will the 2007 Assembly election make any difference to human rights?

Read the rest of the entry at the Amnesty ‘Belfast and beyond’ blog.

Election Question time - full footage of the event from NvTV

Posted by Stephen Gray on Mar 05 2007 under Election goings on, Alliance Party, DUP, Green Party, SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP, Video, PUP

Footage from the Election Question Time hosted at NICVA on 12 February 2007.

Thanks to NvTv who filmed the event and have shown it on their daily television broadcasts during the last week of February.

NvTv is a not-for-profit community venture which seeks to create a public space where:

* new faces are brought to the screen
* local issues are presented in informative and entertaining ways;
* health education and economic resources in the community are promoted;
* local talent and initiatives are celebrated;
* participation is inclusive of all under represented communities (whether geographical, racial, ethnic, cultural or generational)

An important element of this service is to act as a forum for public discussion and to promote community access to television broadcasting. If you would like to become a volunteer and become directly involved in the production of programming, please click here

Northern Visions has been awarded a license by OfCom for a free-to-air, terrestrial community television service for the Belfast area.

WPvideo 1.10

‘Sharing’ or ‘Seperate but Equal’ Manifesto analysis from NICIE

Posted by Lisa on Mar 05 2007 under A Shared Future, Education & training, Alliance Party, DUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP, Parties, Manifesto

Pam Tilson from NICIE sent this helpful roundup of how the manifestos deal with the issue of creating a shared future.

‘Sharing’ or ‘Separate but Equal’?

How far along the road have each of the parties moved to recognising that ‘separate but equal’ – some kind of benign apartheid - is no longer acceptable and that we need to move towards a society where shared schools, housing, workplaces, leisure facilities and other services are commonplace?

NICVA interview with Alban Maginness (SDLP)

Posted by Feargal O'Kane on Mar 01 2007 under Education & training, Housing and homelessness, SDLP, Video

Alban Maginness called in to NICVA for a discussion with Lisa McElherron on the key issues in the forthcoming Assembly election.

WPvideo 1.10

SDLP manifesto

Posted by Feargal O'Kane on Feb 27 2007 under SDLP, Manifesto

Mark Durkan at the manifesto launch The SDLP launched their party manifesto. You can download the full document here or read Mark Devenport’s views on the manifesto launch on the BBC blog.