Assembly Elections - Democracy the victim of cancellation

THE controversial decision to postpone Northern Ireland’s Assembly elections makes a mockery of the North’s fledging democracy and will put the struggling peace process on a knife edge.

Significantly, after singing from the same hymn sheet for months, the move has driven a wedge between the Irish and British governments. Despite Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s insistence that the Good Friday Agreement is not dead, the accord will be starved of oxygen during the North’s explosive marching season.

Thus it will cause more problems than it will solve.