NI election 2022: Stormont's future on the ballot, says Alliance leader

Alliance leader Naomi Long said it was time "this pantomime around the posts of first and deputy first minister was brought to an end"

The assembly election is not about how the executive will govern Northern Ireland but if it will, according to Alliance leader Naomi Long.

Mrs Long was speaking as she launched her party's manifesto.

She said the irony was that heading into the 5 May poll, two parties that could end up taking the post of deputy first minister were refusing to say if they would.

That appeared to be a jibe at the DUP and the Ulster Unionists.

Neither party has said what it would do if Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party and was entitled to the post of first minister.

In that scenario, the largest unionist party would be entitled to the deputy first minister post.

One role cannot be filled unless the other also is.

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"[The election] is essentially a job application," Mrs Long said.

"We're going through an employment process, and yet there are people going to the door seeking to be employed as MLAs [assembly members], seeking to be employed as ministers and what are they saying to their employer?

"Well, we might not want to do the job. Depends who else works in the office."

'Days of designations are over'

One of the party's main manifesto pledges is to end the assembly's designation system - under this system parties must declare whether they are unionist, nationalist or "other".

Alliance designates as "other".

Mrs Long said the system should be replaced it with a weighted majority system.

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She also wants the posts of first minister and deputy first minister both renamed "joint first minister".

Mrs Long said she believed "the days of designations are over".

"It is time that this pantomime around the posts of first and deputy first minister was brought to an end," she said.

"It is a co-equal office with co-equal partners in government that cannot sign a piece of paper, they cannot change the photo on the wall without having the permission of their counterpart. They are joint and equal ministers."

Alliance's other key manifesto pledges include:

• Implementing the Bengoa recommendations to reform the health service

• More integrated education and housing

• A Green new deal for the economy

• Tackling paramilitaries and violence

• A home heating support scheme

Many pundits and pollsters predict Alliance could finish this election as the third-biggest party.

But Mrs Long refused to make any predictions, saying only that she hoped it would be a "turning point" and adding "until Alliance is the largest party we'll still be ambitious for growth".

The party is running 24 candidates in the election.

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