N Ireland Ulster Unionist Party Leader Resigns Amid Election Disappointment

Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Mike Nesbitt resigned Friday after a disappointing election result that may be the worst in his party’s history.

BELFAST (Sputnik) — Speaking in Belfast, Nesbitt said the early results, in which UUP failed to make gains, showed voters had not given him a mandate to continue as leader.

"It has been an absolute honor to have led the Ulster Unionist Party and a challenge like no other," Nesbitt stated. "My only regret is that the results seem to suggest this society is more polarised than ever rather than more united, which was my aspiration."

Nesbitt and leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Colum Eastwood had campaigned as a possible nationalist-unionist alternative to Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Northern Ireland’s complex system of government requires the assembly to be jointly led by a nationalist and unionist political parties or by either with a third party. Sinn Fein and the DUP have occupied the first minister and deputy first minister positions for a decade.

Sinn Fein was leading in early results on Friday night with the unionist parties facing the possibility of not having an assembly majority for the first time.