UUP believed to be seeking election cancellation

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble is believed to be pressing the British government to cancel the Northern Assembly election due to take place next month.

The election was called on Tuesday as part of a choreographed series of events designed to restore the Assembly, which has been suspended for more than a year.

However, Mr Trimble upset the choreography by stating that the IRA’s earlier act of decommissioning was not transparent enough to restore unionist confidence in the peace process.

Mr Trimble is now believed to be putting pressure on the British government to cancel the November 26 election for fear that the UUP will be hammered at the polls by its anti-agreement rival, the DUP. The UUP leader said yesterday that an election would be meaningless in the absence of an agreement between his party and Sinn Féin.

For its part, Sinn Féin believed that such an agreement had been reached before Mr Trimble rejected the Independent International Commission for Decommissioning’s statement on the destruction of IRA weapons, ammunition and explosives earlier this week.

The commission was unable to given an inventory of the items destroyed because its mandate obliges it to honour a confidentiality clause with the IRA.

Mr Trimble said that, without this inventory, unionists could not be assured that the IRA’s future intentions were peaceful.

Republicans are still trying to assess whether Mr Trimble was being genuine or whether he lost his nerve and changed his mind about the deal he negotiated with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams over the past number of weeks.

Some republicans also believe Mr Trimble may have acted deliberately to up the ante and secure more concessions from the IRA.

Mr Adams and Mr Trimble spoke by telephone late last night and the Sinn Féin president is seeking a face-to-face meeting with the UUP leader today in an attempt to resolve the problem.