Every vote counts for equality

Polling day on 2 March gives people a chance to have their voice heard, Sinn Féin says.

A VOTE for Sinn Féin will be a vote not just against corruption and mismanagement but for equality and respect, the party says ahead of publishing its election platform. 

Polling day on 2 March gives people a chance to have their voice heard, Sinn Féin says.

It’s an opportunity to register opposition to Brexit and the North of Ireland being dragged out of the EU against voters’ wishes, casting a dark shadow over the North’s economic prospects and the future for generations to come.

Sinn Féin is reiterating that it wants a special designated status for the North within the European Union, something its MEPs and other elected representatives have been lobbying EU leaders and officials for in meetings in Brussels and Ireland.

The DUP ‘Cash for Ash’ scandal of the Renewable Heat Initiative, mired in controversy and suspicion – and piled on top of the DUP’s arrogant disrespect for all sections of the community who don’t vote DUP – stretched Martin McGuinness’s patience to breaking point and has provoked the collapse of the power-sharing Executive.

In this context, this is not the time for an “ordinary manifesto”, Sinn Féin says. Standing by its agenda for the Executive departments published last May, Sinn Féin says its Assembly 2017 “platform” supplements its 2016 Assembly Manifesto.

Sinn Féin is “setting out a new agenda for the time ahead”, the party says in a document still to be published as An Phoblacht goes to print.

A spokesperson told An Phoblacht that Sinn Féin that the “platform” will point to the party’s track record of delivery in government and its unwavering commitment to the principles and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, including equality, respect and safeguarding the rights of everyone in the community.

It will also reiterate its guarantee of religious and civil liberty and opportunities for all (including the LGBT community), and opposition to sectarianism, racism and misogyny.