Assembly elections in North ‘must take place’

NORTHERN Ireland Assembly elections must take place to break the political deadlock, Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen said yesterday.

However, the Sinn Féin chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, warned that no elections this year could spell the end of the Good Friday Agreement and party leader Gerry Adams also said time was running out to save the peace process.

While holding meetings with Mr McGuinness and Northern Ireland secretary of state Paul Murphy, Mr Cowen said the need for elections was the Government’s view since the institutions were suspended. “We just simply have to have elections. That is the Irish Government’s position from the first day it was suggested to us they were going to be suspended. It was the day they were suspended.