DUP claims North vote may hold key to power

NORTHERN Ireland voters could be kingmakers in a hung parliament, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) claimed last night in a final appeal for support.

It was only on Tuesday that Conservative leader David Cameron used a campaign visit to Belfast to take swipes at the DUP, but its leader Peter Robinson claimed his party could yet be pivotal to Tory ambitions.

The DUP called for a strong turnout from unionist voters, while Sinn Féin recalled tense political contests of the 1980s in a bid to rally its supporters, with both parties likely to remain dominant over the political scene at the end of this campaign.

In the last general election in 2005 the DUP won nine seats, Sinn Féin took five, the nationalist SDLP won three and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which is allied to the Conservatives in this election, took one seat.

The early months of this year saw Mr Robinson mired in scandal after it emerged that his wife had an affair with a 19-year-old and secured £50,000 (€58,710) from property developers to start a business for her lover.

But the DUP leader has sought to focus attention on wider issues and last night maintained his claims that his party could yet prove influential in the next parliament.

“All the indications, over many weeks now, have shown that a hung parliament is the most likely outcome of the election nationally,” he said.

“In those circumstances it is clear that Northern Ireland’s influence will be maximised through a strong, united group of Democratic Unionists who can negotiate to protect Ulster’s block grant and not through Conservative/UUP members who are attempting to explain away David Cameron’s focus on Northern Ireland when asked to point towards spending cuts.”

Today will also see an election to replace the DUP leader’s disgraced wife Iris on Castlereagh Borough Council after she was forced to stand down as a councillor, Assembly member and MP.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams went on the offensive over the pact between the DUP, UUP and Conservatives in Fermanagh-South Tyrone where the parties are backing a unionist unity candidate in a bid to oust outgoing republican MP Michelle Gildernew.