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Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly
To be appointed Northern Ireland Executive (2022-) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 6th Executive of Northern Ireland was appointed on 3 February 2024, following the 2022 election to the seventh Northern Ireland Assembly held on 5 May 2022 and the protracted negotiations leading up to the 2024 Northern Ireland Executive formation. The newly elected assembly met for the first time on 13 May 2022.[1] It is led by Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin as First Minister and Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP as deputy First Minister.
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As leader of the largest party in the Assembly, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill is expected by commentators to be the leading candidate for the First Minister office,[2][3] with the party entitled to make the only nomination to the position.[4] Her election would rely on the Democratic Unionist Party's agreement to sit on the executive, and serve in the Assembly, something which is in doubt since the party's previous First Minister Paul Givan resigned the post in February 2022, in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit agreement,[5] the implementation of which unionists have objected to.[6]
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP leader and Member of Parliament for Lagan Valley secured an MLA position in the eponymous constituency, becoming the presumed choice for deputy First Minister, but has since announced that the DUP leadership team would decide if he would take that seat, (and thus call a by-election for his Westminster seat), or appoint a proxy.[7] On 12 May, the day before the first scheduled sitting day of the Assembly, Donaldson announced his decision to remain as an MP, and formally co-opted former MP for Belfast South and MLA for Belfast South, Emma Little-Pengelly, to take his seat in the Assembly.[8]
The DUP refused to assent to the election of a Speaker on 13 May[9] in further protest to the Northern Ireland Protocol, so the Assembly could not continue to other business, including the appointment of a fresh Executive.[10] The Speaker and incumbent ministers from the previous Assembly continued in office in caretaker capacity, a new arrangement introduced by the New Decade, New Approach agreement,[9] but this provision expired in October 2022.
On 30 January 2024, leader of the DUP Jeffrey Donaldson announced that the DUP would allow the formation of the institutions on the condition that new legislation was passed by the UK House of Commons.[11]
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6th Executive of Northern Ireland
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