Thousands protest at Assembly polls move
From Belfast to Dublin, Sinn Féin held protests in an estimated 30 towns and cities while the SDLP and other political parties and trade unions also added their voices to the call for immediate elections.
Despite opposition from republicans, and against the wishes of the Irish Government, British Prime Minister Tony Blair postponed the elections last month citing failure of the IRA to produce a statement declaring an end to all paramilitary activity.
The largest Dublin protest saw hundreds converge on the British Embassy on Merrion Road yesterday evening while activists yesterday morning put leaflets out on all the main road and rail routes into Dublin. In Belfast and most Northern towns hundreds of republicans handed in letters of protest to electoral offices and held white line protests on major traffic routes.
Yesterday Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams repeated a warning that the peace process could drift into oblivion if the British government did not call elections. Mr Adams said the decision of Tony Blair to go against the wishes of the Taoiseach was an absolute disgrace: “Our position is that the election should go ahead as quickly as possible. The British Government has created a deep crisis in the political process. The cancellation of the assembly elections scheduled for today creates a dangerous political vacuum which those who are opponents of the (peace) agreement will attempt to fill.”
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday repeated his view that calling off the elections had been a mistake which would make the peace process more difficult. On Wednesday the Dáil accepted a government motion, urging that elections be held quickly and that in the meantime, everyone with influence in the North should work for a violence-free summer.
