Dissidents monitored ahead of North elections

Dissident republicans were under surveillance today as part of special security operations to protect the Northern Ireland elections – one of the most critical in Northern Ireland for decades.

Every available officer was on duty at more than 600 polling stations amid fears of new strikes by the organisations opposed to the peace process.

With the British and Irish governments calling for a maximum turn out in support of candidates whose parties are signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, this could be one of the most critical votes in 30 years.

Tony Blair needs David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists to hold off the challenge of the Rev Ian Paisley’s hard-line Democratic Unionists if he is to have any chance of restoring the power-sharing executive in Belfast.

Sinn Féin say they are confident they will overtake the SDLP as the largest nationalist party.

But the threat of fresh violence by the Real IRA, which bombed Omagh, and the Continuity IRA, has put security chiefs on full alert.

More than 2,000 extra officers have been drafted in to schools and halls where up to 1.1 million members of the public are eligible to vote.

Private security firms have also been called in to combat the threat.

Fears intensified following a bomb attack on an army base in Co Tyrone on Monday.

Chief Constable Hugh Orde said: “We’re worried about the threat to policing and to local communities in the build-up to the elections.”

Polls open at 7am and close tonight at 10pm.