Trimble predicts success for his party
As British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed for a strong turn-out at polling stations tomorrow, Mr Trimble insisted the party would not fall behind the rival Democratic Unionists.
At an election event in south Belfast appealing to voters to turn out at the polls, the Upper Bann MP said:
“I will give you just one prediction. We will not lose a single seat to the DUP and we will make gains,” he said.
With the future of devolved government and the Good Friday Agreement riding on tomorrow’s result, unionists and nationalists have admitted it is proving increasingly difficult to tell how exactly the Assembly’s 108 seats will fall. Assembly members will be elected by proportional representation.
Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell last night dismissed Mr Trimble’s optimistic prediction.
“If Mr Trimble is still blissfully unaware of the unionist reaction on the doorsteps, then he is in for a bigger shock than many in his own party would have him believe,” the East Derry MP said.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams predicted his party was going to attract preferences for the first time from a “small amount of more far-sighted unionist voters”.
The West Belfast MP said the party would make gains at the expense of the rival nationalist SDLP whose supporters, he claimed, had been put off by their “negative, carping and begrudging campaign against Sinn Féin”.
“Many SDLP voters are telling us they are going to vote for Sinn Féin this time. We are being told the SDLP’s failure to scrap student fees and the proposal by their ministers to bring in water charges are key issues,” he said. SDLP director of elections Brid Rodgers hit back, insisting her party’s core vote remained strong.
“Our campaign to protect the Agreement and stop the DUP has hit home with nationalist voters and that is why we will again be the largest nationalist party,” she said.
“Nationalists will be surprised that Gerry Adams is attacking the SDLP at a time when we are going all out to stop the march of the DUP.
Tony Blair appealed for a strong turnout at polling stations.
“The decision now is for the people of Northern Ireland and they are going to have to decide in a fundamental way whether Northern Ireland today is a better place than it was six, seven, 10 years ago, and if it is, they are going to have to come and vote for it.”
