Formal Postponement of NI Elections

FRIDAY 09/05/2003

The British Government was today poised to release legislation formally postponing Assembly elections in Northern Ireland which were due to take place this month.
 
MPs were expecting a Bill which would confirm that the May 29 Assembly poll would not take place.
Government sources have indicated that the legislation will not offer an alternative date.

Elections in Northern Ireland were postponed last week four days into the Assembly campaign because of a lack of progress in the peace process.

Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted elections could not go ahead unless power sharing and devolution in the province could be restored.

He insisted the IRA needed to make a clearer declaration that it was ending all paramilitary activity if the province's power-sharing government and Assembly were to be restored.

Nationalists and hard-line unionists were angered by the Government's decision last week to postpone the elections.

Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern also expressed disappointment and opposition to the plan.

Mr Ahern last night faced calls from Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness for him to join with nationalists in calling for the Assembly election to take place next month.

Noting Mr Ahern had said in Dublin that the release of two IRA statements this week would have been more helpful had they come earlier, the Mid-Ulster MP argued: “The two governments now have the IRA position and if it was the basis for forward movement last week, it logically is the basis for forward movement this week.”

“The question for the Taoiseach (Mr Ahern) is whether he is now going to push the British Government to reschedule the elections for June.”

Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan has also in recent days called on the Prime Minister to allow the people of Northern Ireland to cast their votes in June despite the deadlock in the peace process.

MPs were expected to debate on Monday the legislation postponing the elections.

The Bill is then scheduled to go through the House of Lords on Tuesday.

Speculation was mounting in Belfast and Westminster that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats may attempt to insert a clause requiring the Government to set a specific date for the Stormont poll.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy's legislation was also expected to address the issue of compensation for those who embarked on their election campaigns last week before the Government announced its postponement.

The salaries of the province's 108 outgoing Assembly members were also expected to be slashed.

An Ulster Unionist who was due to seek re-election to Stormont last night said he believed MLAs should not be paid.
UUP Policing Board member Fred Cobain said: “I don`t think we should get anything. The Assembly has been wound up so effectively we are redundant. There are no jobs for life irrespective of whether you are in public life or commerce. You have to accept that when you go into it.”

“The credibility of the whole process has been damaged by people being paid when there is no Assembly.”