vacant positions Michelle O'Neill (SF) & Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022.

[4][5] As Northern Ireland's government is based on power-sharing, the DUP (the largest unionist party) was required to nominate a deputy First Minister for the Executive to be formed and the Assembly to conduct business; however, they refused to do so due to their opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol and post-Brexit trading arrangements.

[8] In May 2013, Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that the next Assembly election would be postponed to May 2016, and would be held at fixed intervals of five years thereafter.

[19] The Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority and sought a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP in order to remain in government.

The SDLP and Alliance returned to the House of Commons, while the DUP and Sinn Féin saw vote share declines of more than 5%.

[30] Steve Aiken announced his resignation as leader of the UUP on 8 May 2021,[31] with Doug Beattie taking up the post nine days later after standing unopposed.

As part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process, the border has been largely invisible, without any physical barrier or customs checks on its many crossing points; this arrangement was made possible by both countries' common membership of both the European Single Market and EU Customs Union, and of their Common Travel Area.

The DUP threatened to pull out of Stormont's power-sharing government on 9 September 2021, triggering a snap election "within weeks" unless the protocol was scrapped.

"[34] The following week, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood accused the DUP of having a "petulant strop" and called for a new law to stop an early election.

He told peers that the "delicate constitutional balance" in Northern Ireland was "too fragile for people to play games with".

[40] Following the collapse of the Assembly, Sinn Féin and the DUP both called for the election to be brought forward, but the UUP, SDLP and Alliance Party opposed the idea.

[70] The Democratic Unionist Party campaign focused on their opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sinn Féin and the prospect of a referendum on Irish unity.

Following this, his constituency office in Portadown was attacked,[75] and an election poster with a noose around his neck appeared at a loyalist rally in Lurgan.

[76] The Alliance Party advocated reform of the Stormont institutions to remove the designation system and avoid a "cycle of collapse".

[77] The party further promised to build Casement Park,[78] positioned itself as the "centre ground" and campaigned in constituencies west of the River Bann, where they have never won any seats.

[79] The Green Party pledged the establishment of a bill of rights, an independent Environmental Protection Agency, and rent controls.

[81] On 30 April, PBP candidate Hannah Kenny was attacked by three men in East Belfast, who also subjected her to "sectarian and misogynistic" abuse.

[4][5] Alex Easton, who left the DUP in 2021, was re-elected as an independent unionist, as was the returning former Justice Minister, Claire Sugden.

The first column indicates the party of the Member of the House of Commons (MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the 2019 United Kingdom general election under the first-past-the-post voting method.

He later announced that he would not take his Assembly seat, which was co-opted by Emma Little-Pengelly,[102] and the DUP would not be nominating a Speaker until the UK government took "decisive action".

[103] The SDLP responded by accusing the DUP of treating voters with contempt and "mak[ing] our electoral process look like a bad joke".

[105] These disagreements continued a political crisis from before the election, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to visit Northern Ireland to discuss amendments to the Protocol.

[106][107] The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refused to resume power sharing due to its stance on the protocol.

However, on 30 January 2024, the DUP announced that it had accepted a deal (conditional on legislation being passed by the UK government) that saw it agreeing to form an executive.