The Guardian view on dual mandates: double trouble in Northern Ireland

Brandon Lewis’s plan ‘caused outrage – some genuine, some confected – among Northern Ireland’s other parties, which had not been consulted or consented to the change.’ Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

This spring’s elections are getting an unusual amount of advance publicity. The cause, regrettably, is not a great revival of enthusiasm for local government. It is that the results may decide if Boris Johnson stays as prime minister – if he has not already gone by then. But the contests are important for other reasons. Nowhere is this more true than in Northern Ireland, where the assembly is up for election on 5 May.

Since 1998, though with significant interruptions, Northern Ireland has been self-governing through power-sharing institutions agreed in the Good Friday agreement. The Northern Ireland executive has always been jointly led by the leaders of the largest parties in the assembly from the main rival traditions, unionist and nationalist, although there is now a growing non-sectarian tradition too.