Standing in front of the bright yellow Alliance backdrop, speaker after speaker emphasises that Northern Ireland was no longer coloured only orange and green, reports Freya McClements from the party's annual conference
The east Belfast hotel where Alliance is gathered on Saturday morning is packed, with many standing at the back of the room so they can follow the biggest conference the party has ever had.
We have shown that far from being a niche position, nonaligned voters now represent a fifth of the Assembly. Alliance is the third-largest party, the same size as the UUP and SDLP combinedThat year, three elections – local government, European and Westminster – saw it add 21 council seats; elect its party leader, Naomi Long, as an MEP with 18.5 per cent of the vote; and increase its vote share in the Westminster elections to 16.8 per cent – the third-highest behind the DUP and Sinn Féin.
Now, the drive is on to capitalise on this momentum in this May’s elections, and beyond, with all those present aware that a good result at council level will lay the groundwork for future growth in the Assembly and at Westminster.In May the party is aiming to increase its representation in councils where it already has a significant number of councillors, such as North Down and Belfast, as well as expanding further into areas west of the Bann where it has traditionally struggled.
A particular target is Mid Ulster, the only one of the North’s 11 council areas that has no Alliance representative. It will certainly seek to overtake the SDLP, which lost seats last time round and is only six ahead, and potentially the UUP, on 75. The extent to which it can grow will be dependent on how successfully it can cut into both parties’ votes.Privately, Alliance would like to break into the 70s or even the 80s on a really good day, and in recent times it has been no stranger to these.
The growth of Alliance, she says, “simply makes the inherent inequality and discrimination more glaring”.
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