DUP And Sinn Fein Vote Up In North Elections

Plus A Round Up Of Other Election News

Reporters and television crews from the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Italy set up camp in Northern Ireland last week for the assembly elections. With the final picture now clear the issue of whether the DUP will at last share power with Sinn Fein is still very much undecided. Polling in some areas was reported to have been above 2003 levels and Ian Paisley's party emerged as the largest when the results were tallied having secured 36 of the 108 seats, with Sinn Fein taking 28, both parties taking more than half the first preference votes between them. The UUP will have 18 seats, the SDLP 16, and the Alliance Party seven.

In the event a power-sharing executive is formed by the March 26 deadline it will have four DUP ministers, three Sinn Fein, two UUP and one SDLP. Alliance will not have a presence in the executive, neither will the Green Party or the PUP, which both won one seat. Dr Kieran Deeny who stood on a platform to save Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh from closure was the only independent candidate elected.

The Assembly has been suspended since October 2002 - direct rule has been in place since that date - amid allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont though a subsequent court case collapsed due to lack of evidence amid Sinn Fein claims of; "yet another episode in the dirty war of the British security services".

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern issued a joint statement last Friday declaring that voters in had issued a clear message they want devolved government returned. "Restoration of the devolved institutions represents an opportunity of historic proportions." The Prime Ministers said in their statement.

Deal May Be Worked Out

After a meeting with Mr Hain last Friday, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said: "We look to both governments to accept what the people overwhelmingly voted for. That is for local politicians who sought a mandate to execute that mandate in the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement."

The DUP's strong performance seem to indicate that Mr Paisley will make a deal rather than adopt any delaying tactics. He has insisted that he will not be "calendar-led", leading to speculation that while he may go for a deal, he may not do so by the deadline.

Passing close to Martin McGuinness at an election count, Mr Paisley reverting to his role as a church leader rather than a DUP leader said: "I will not be greeting him. He needs to be converted to democracy. They need to repent and turn from their evil ways."

It was a poor election for the Ulster Unionist Party, until recent years the largest Protestant political grouping, as they again lost out to the DUP.

No Change in Deadline

On Monday Secretary of State Peter Hain again said the 26 March deadline for devolution will not be changed. Mr Hain was speaking ahead of a meeting with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern at Hillsborough Castle. "The St Andrews legislation leaves absolutely no discretion for me, even if I wanted to display that discretion, to do anything other than restore or dissolve the assembly. The prime minister's official spokesman today confirmed that the prime minister was absolutely clear that there would be no other available choice for the parties." Mr Hain said.

Dermot Ahern said the Irish government was willing to contribute to a financial package if it was to the mutual benefit of people on both sides of the border.

Candidate Arrested

A candidate in the Assembly elections was arrested outside a polling station and questioned about the attempted murder of a soldier more than 25 years ago. Gerry McGeough, a critic of the current Sinn Fein political strategy, was standing in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency and was arrested in Omagh. He was taken to a police station in Antrim. Detectives are questioning him about an attempt to assassinate a part-time UDR officer in 1981.