Ian Paisley: Landslide for Joe Biden hasn’t happened but legal challenges to election results rarely succeed

Northern Ireland political and business leaders have contrasting views on what the victory of either Donald Trump or Joe Biden in the US presidential election might mean for the Province.

SDLP MP Claire Hanna said the first night of counting “certainly wasn’t a pleasant night” and that the polls seemed to have got it wrong again on Mr Biden’s predicted margin of victory. She said there hadn’t been the hoped-for “repudiation of Trump and Trumpism”.

Noting that the United States is now “a chronically divided country”, the South Belfast MP pointed out that Mr Trump had alleged cheating in the election and said weeks ago he was going to call the result “stolen” if it didn’t go his way.

“He doesn’t look confident in that regard but it is going to make whatever healing process comes much more difficult,” she told Good Morning Ulster.

However DUP MP Ian Paisley said it was “one of the one of the most exciting elections that we have witnessed in a generation”. He added: “From the pure optics of politics and looking at it as a political scientist - wow!”

“There was no blow out victory for Biden. They were expecting a complete landslide, It hasn’t happened.”

Asked about a possible legal challenge by Mr Trump, Mr Paisley advocated caution, adding that those who launch such challenges rarely win.

Stephen Kelly of Manufacturing NI said Mr Trump’s ‘America First’ policy has the potential to encourage major American investors in NI to return home, if he won.

“That would be a worry,” he said, “It is a stated policy aim of Donald Trump to bring jobs back home.”

However US manufacturing cannot be easily moved due to the investment in machinery here, locally based US companies need to be close to their European customers, plus NI’s “incredibly talented workforce” is very difficult to replicate, he added. He hopes the various factors will cancel each other out and result in no change.

Glyn Roberts of Retail NI said last night that the latest results pointed to a win for Mr Biden.

“I think that for the economy for Northern Ireland as a whole, it will be positive, given his interest in Northern Ireland and indeed the island of Ireland,” he said. “I think that will obviously mean that our Executive will have to build relationships with the new administration, particularly to build economic ties. Obviously in the middle of a pandemic, we need to focus on economic recovery and building on links we have with the US.”