SDLP seeks solid date for elections

The prospects for early elections for a new assembly in Northern Ireland were assessed in Dublin tonight by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the SDLP.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan urged Mr Ahern to press for a solid date when he meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Chequers this weekend.

Mr Durkan said: “We want to move forward decisively to see restoration of the institutions and that has to include a clear and fixed date for elections, from which there is going to be no messing.”

He maintained that if last weekend’s victory for the Ulster Unionist leader and former Northern Ireland First Minister, David Trimble, over party rebels was going to be treated as in any way decisive, “we have to make sure that decisive things happen”.

“And that depends on the rest of us getting our act together and making it very clear that we are creating certainty around the agreement,” he added.

“That will do more to create stability inside the Ulster Unionist Party than any of their internal politicking ever will.”

Mr Durkan made it clear that, in his view, the elections should never have been postponed from the originally scheduled date last May – and added criticism of the republican movement for “engaging in a slow game of political tennis” with the British and Irish governments and providing an excuse for the elections to be delayed.

He said: “It is a bit rich now for Sinn Féin to be saying there will be no gestures or commitments from republicans.

“We all thought we were going to have elections in May, and the republican movement was falling short then.

“It is not good enough for them to try to put the blame elsewhere now.”