Paisley's party surges to top of poll

Ian Paisley’s hardline Democratic Unionists tonight surged to the top of the Northern Ireland’s election poll to threaten the future of the Good Friday Agreement.

The party’s 178,000 first preference votes hardened opposition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s plans to restore a power sharing executive in Belfast.

With Sinn Féin hammering Mark Durkan’s nationalist SDLP, the next Stormont Assembly will have a majority of unionists who are opposed to the 1998 peace accord.

The result is a huge setback for British and Irish government hopes of getting the peace process up and running again.

The Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy is expected to have talks with all sides next week but Mr Blair and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, face an indefinite delay in trying to restore devolution.

As they prepared for talks in Cardiff tomorrow, a triumphant Dr Paisley declared: “It’s a great day for Ulster.”

His party was humiliated when more than 70% of people backed the Good Friday Agreement in a referendum five years ago.

But increasing unionist disillusionment with the accord and lingering doubts over Sinn Féin’s commitment to a future free of violence signalled a spectacular comeback.

Sinn Féin tonight increased its lead over the SDLP, whose vote collapsed in a number of key constituencies, with the former West Belfast MP Dr Joe Hendron the biggest casualty.

The smaller Women’s Coalition and Progressive Unionists were facing meltdown, as the vote shifted dramatically to the two extremes leaving the middle-of-the-road also struggling.

The full results will not be known until tomorrow afternoon but there were clear indications that Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble would face new pressures when he returned to Stormont.

After he topped the poll in Upper Bann, David Trimble tried to shift the focus on republicans and the future of the IRA.

“My ultimate aim is to see a society here operating entirely peacefully and democratically and so, the first object now, as it was beforehand, is the matter of compelling republicans that they have to now abandon all elements of their military machine,” he said.

Ulster Unionist strategists were hoping to recover some ground from the DUP under the proportional representation system as votes were transferred between candidates.

However, Mr Trimble faced the uncomfortable fact that two of his biggest internal critics, Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson and South Antrim MP David Burnside would lead a stronger cabal of anti-Agreement Ulster Unionists at Stormont.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan was putting a brave face on his party’s disappointing performance, blaming the low turnout and a problem with resources.

Mr Durkan, whose party had urged voters during the campaign to ‘Stop the DUP’, said he feared for the future of the Agreement following the DUP and Sinn Féin’s gains.

“I’m worried, not so much for the SDLP or whatever, I’m just worried about what this result means for our political process, what it means for the future of the Agreement,” he said.

With Sinn Féin poised to make gains in North Antrim, North Belfast, South Belfast and Newry and Armagh, Gerry Adams basked in his party’s strong performance.

“We asked people to endorse the risks we were taking for the peace process, we stood on our record in the assembly and the executive,” the West Belfast MP said.

In the most sensational result, a single issue hospitals candidate Dr Kieran Deeny topped the poll in West Tyrone, which is likely to cost the struggling SDLP another seat.

At 8pm, as candidates approached the end of the first day’s count, the Democratic Unionists had 17 seats, the Ulster Unionists had 11 Assembly members, Sinn Féin had six, the SDLP had two and there was one independent.

The DUP had 25.71% of the overall vote (177,944 votes).

Sinn Féin had the second highest vote with 23.52% of the vote (162,758); the Ulster Unionists had 22.68% (156,931) and the SDLP had 16.99% (117,547).

The cross community Alliance Party, whose leader David Ford was fighting for survival in South Antrim, had a 3.67% share (25,370).

The loyalist PUP was on 1.16% (8,032), the Women’s Coalition had 5,785 (0.84%) and the UK Unionists had 5,700 (0.82%)