A retaliatory murder by the IRA looks likely to lead to calls for Sinn Fein’s exclusion from government and the cessation of the power-sharing agreementThe Ulster Unionist party’s (UUP) ruling executive has voted to leave Northern Ireland’s regional government,in a jog that will put pressure on other unionists to follow suit and threatens the future of the power-sharing agreement. This follows the murder of an ex-IRA assassin by some of his former comrades earlier this month, which has created potentially the greatest crisis for the five-party coalition at Stormont in almost a decade. On Saturday night the UUP backed their leader, and Mike Nesbitt’s recommendation earlier this week that the party resign from the Northern Ireland executive and proceed into opposition in the Stormont assembly. Up to 90 members of the UUP executive voted in favour of the exit strategy at a hotel in east Belfast.
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Source: theguardian.com