By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN – The island of Ireland has given a resounding 85.5 percent “Yes” to the Good Friday peace deal in historic simultaneous votes north and south of the border.
It is the first time in 80 years that there has been such an all-Ireland vote and the spectacular result is being hailed worldwide as another Good Friday that sets the scene for a new political era on the island. The deal will create, among other things, a 108-member Northern Ireland assembly, several all-Ireland and cross-border bodies, and a host of councils and commissions designed to handle such hot-button topics as decommissioning, policing and human rights.
The extraordinary endorsement must set records in electoral history in free democracies. In particular, the 94 percent landslide in the Republic is a level of support more normally associated with blatantly rigged results announced by totalitarian regimes.
It underpins the peace deal with an unassailable moral force and is a major vindication of the marathon multi-party talks to end the 30- years-old bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland was first to say “Yes.” With an unprecedented turnout of over 81 percent, it voted 71.1 percent “yes” to 28.9 percent “No.”
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It meant that 676,966 voted for the new deal and 274,879 were against. The spoiled votes were only 1,738.
Within hours, the central coordinating center in Dublin Castle had all the votes from the Republic’s 41 constituencies in and announced a resounding 94.4 percent “yes” with only 5.6 percent voting against.
It means that 1,442,503 people voted in favor and 85,748 voted against, with 17,064 spoiled votes.
The turnout of 56.3 percent, in comparison to the 65.9 percent who voted in the general election last June, caused disappointment but this was offset by the emphatic backing given.
In Northern Ireland the vote was to support the April 10 accord; in the Republic it involved constitutional changes and means that if the proposed assembly is set up and other institutional changes in the peace deal are put in place, the Republic will now amend it’s Constitution to drop the 61-year-old territorial claim to the North.
Voters in the Republic had been asked “British-Irish Agreement: Do you approve of the proposal to amend the Constitution contained in the undermentioned Bill? Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1998.”
The Bill provides for six constitutional amendments to give effect to the peace deal.
The amendments to Articles Two and Three of the Constitution involve dropping the territorial claim to Northern Ireland and the unconditional aspiration to unification contained in the words “pending the reintegration of the national territory . . . ”
Amended, they will emphasize the right of Irish people to feel part of the “Irish nation” and recognize that unity shall only be brought about by democratic consent and peaceful means.
Voter approval for the changes is conditional, however, and do not take immediate effect.
The constitutional amendments will be introduced when the government makes a declaration that all elements of the peace deal have been implemented in Northern Ireland.
Almost ignored in the hype surrounding the peace deal was the result of the EU Amsterdam Treaty held at the same time.
It was passed by 61.7 percent to 38.3 percent – a record high “No” vote in a referendum on an EU issue.
Ireland joined the EEC in 1972 by an 83.1 percent margin, it endorsed the Single European Act by 69.9 percent in 1987, and it backed the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 by 69.1 percent.
The vote breakdown
The following is how voters in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland cast their ballots Friday in the joint referenda on the Belfast Agreement: