Elections to proceed without devolution

THE British Government is sticking with its plans for Assembly elections in Northern Ireland next month, even if efforts to restore devolution fail, a spokesman said last night.

With the peace process deadlocked over the IRA’s refusal to abandon paramilitarism, London and Dublin said the May 29 poll will go ahead regardless of whether there is a breakthrough.

British and Irish officials are still trying to persuade the IRA to issue a clearer statement on its future.

With Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble insisting the IRA’s recent statement fell “a long way short” of what was needed to restore devolution, it’s now feared the process could be put on hold until the autumn.

A Stormont source said: “The governments are going to have to come to terms with the fact that this may have to be parked. But that raises the question: should the elections go ahead?”

Last month, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy moved the poll back from May 1 to 29 to buy the peace process more time.

But he is expected to come under pressure to put the elections on hold until a deal is struck.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan tonight stated his opposition to that proposal, insisting voters “must be given the chance to have their voices heard.”

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said yesterday his government wanted the elections to go ahead.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met for 30 minutes at the EU summit in Athens to review their governments’ communication with the IRA.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said tonight he believed there would be no change to the IRA’s position as set out in its recent statement. He was speaking ahead of a meeting of the party’s national executive in Julianstown, Co Meath, which Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness had been due to attend.

The pair pulled out at the last minute in order to continue talks with Irish Government officials in Belfast.