Green Party NI warns against tactical voting

The leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland has appealed to people not to vote tactically in the general election.

Recognising the party had suffered some difficult recent elections, Mal O'Hara told his party's manifesto launch: "We are back."

The Greens have lost the two assembly seats they once held while Mr O'Hara has lost his seat on Belfast City Council.

But he said: "We want to be elected to make change."

He added: "And yes, we have had a couple of tough elections but we're back. We are standing the most candidates that we've ever stood.

"We are standing the most diverse set of candidates that we've ever stood and we are offering people a unique policy platform saying things that other parties in Northern Ireland are not talking about."

The Greens, he said, are saying to people "don't vote tactically".

"You get stuck and if we keep voting like we have done, we will have the shameful record on social environmental justice that this executive has presided over and we won't make change.

"So vote for something, and this manifesto and these candidates, that is something to vote for."

The party's manifesto pledges include:

• Taking Lough Neagh into public ownership
• A wealth tax on richest one per cent of people
• Protecting Public Services from cuts
• And Reforming Stormont using a series of Citizens' Assemblies

Mr O'Hara said in spite of its recent electoral decline, party membership in Northern Ireland is now more than 700 - the highest in a decade.

The party, he said , had reorganised with a new leader and deputy leader.

"We have to be very clear of calling on people when they have failed Northern Ireland, whether that's Lough Neagh, the housing crisis, drug deaths, mental health, intergenerational trauma, poverty, discrimination, all of those metrics," Mr O'Hara said.

"And what happens is we get sidetracked into the debates around constitutional questions, around identity politics, rather than the bread and butter failures that have happened for 26 years in Northern Ireland".

"So, we're going to be the voice that calls that out. We are building to get back into the assembly in 2027 and increase our council representation".

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