Elections will go ahead on schedule says Murphy

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are still on schedule to take place on May 29, the Secretary of State Paul Murphy has said.

However echoing the Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sentiments yesterday, Mr Murphy said it was vital that everyone involved in the peace process and the general public had the full picture of IRA intentions before votes were cast.

Yesterday Tony Blair said the election date was set in law, “but I want to go into it with a positive framework".

This would be ensured he said if the IRA “made clear” their answers to three crucial questions on acts of completion and disarmament.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration was suspended on 14 October 2002, amid allegations of IRA intelligence gathering at the heart of the Stormont government.

The British and Irish Governments postponed publication of their blueprint to fully implement the Good Friday Agreement until the IRA had answered questions about a statement it submitted on 13 April.

Mr Blair said that "the impasse is there because there is uncertainty over the commitments given" by the IRA.

Mr Blair also said the British and Irish Governments and US administration believed the IRA statement was "not clear and unambiguous".

In today’s London Times, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said that it was “crunch time” for republicans who have to “abandon, once and for all, Semtex and semantics”.

The Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman, Quentin Davies, said it was important that the elections went ahead as planned.

"There must be no further postponement of the Assembly elections in Northern Ireland, due on 29 May," he said.

"And the government should begin discussions with all parties in advance on a contingency basis, with a view to forming a power-sharing executive after 29 May without Sinn Fein, if Sinn Fein have still not divested themselves of their arms and private army by then."

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has insisted the existing IRA offer goes further than ever before.

Responding to Mr Blair’s call for clarity, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly said “the IRA statement is the clearest and most certain element in this current negotiation”.

(AMcE)