N Ireland's Sinn Fein May Push for Poll on Irish Unity After Brexit Vote

The Northern Irish republican party Sinn Fein will intensify its push for a so-called border poll on Irish unity, Sinn Fein Member of the European Parliament Martina Anderson told Sputnik on Friday after the UK referendum results were officially announced.

EDINBURGH (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the United Kingdom held a referendum, in which a majority of Northern Irish voters supported retaining membership of the 28-nation bloc. Despite this fact, support for Brexit in England and Wales outweighed resistance to the move in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

"Sinn Féin will now be pushing for a border poll, a measure agreed upon in the Good Friday Agreement 18 years ago, to provide Irish citizens with the right to vote for an end to partition [division of Ireland] and to retain a role in the EU," Martina Anderson said.

© AFP 2016/ CHRIS J RATCLIFFE

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"There is an onus on the British government to recognize the vote in the devolved administrations and there is an onus on them to provide answers for the several unanswered questions that the people of the North have," Anderson said.

Anderson also stressed that the outcome of referendum on EU membership had nothing to do with the best interests of the people of the Northern Ireland.

According to the final results of the UK referendum, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support Brexit, while about 16.1 million opposed it.

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160624/1041891834/sinn-fein-irish-unity.html