Mr Jeffrey Donaldson will mount another challenge against Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble at Stormont today as the British and Irish governments begin the long, difficult process of rescuing the stricken Northern Ireland political process. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Paul Murphy re-affirmed the primacy of the power-sharing philosophy of the Belfast Agreement. However, they could offer no solution to the political deadlock that resulted from the election successes of the anti-agreement DUP.
Mr Murphy is meeting the DUP today and writing to all the parties seeking ideas on how to proceed next year with a review of the agreement. Both governments are at a loss to know how to drive the political situation forward against Rev Ian Paisley's insistence that the DUP will not deal with Sinn Féin.
The most pressing problem for Mr Trimble is how to protect his leadership. A bitter and angry post- mortem of the election, which left the UUP in second place to the DUP, is expected as the UUP's new 27-member Assembly team gathers at Stormont this morning.
Mr Trimble rejected Mr Donaldson's repeated calls for his resignation over the weekend. This has created the possibility that Mr Donaldson and some anti-agreement allies could defect to the DUP or establish an independent unionist grouping.
A group of pro-agreement loyalists such as Mr Michael McGimpsey, Mr Dermot Nesbitt and Mr Jim Wilson rallied at the weekend behind Mr Trimble with new UUP Assembly member in Strangford Mr David McNarry going so far as to challenge Mr Donaldson to either support the leader or defect to the DUP. "Even if Jeffrey takes four other members out of the party with him we are better off being 22 and united," he told the Sunday Times.
Five of the UUP's Assembly team, including Mr Donaldson, are avowedly anti-agreement. Mr Donaldson said yesterday that the UUP had little future with Mr Trimble continuing as leader. "We will continue to suffer electoral reversals unless there is a change of leadership." He refused to give a direct answer when asked would he resign from the UUP and join the DUP or establish a separate anti-agreement unionist block if Mr Trimble was effectively reconfirmed as leader today. He was not ruling in or out such an option, he said.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, ahead of today's meeting with Mr Murphy, said his party was determined to achieve stable and lasting political structures. He said there were no divisions between him and Dr Paisley over how to deal with Sinn Féin. He held firmly to Dr Paisley's line that republicans could not be allowed in government until the IRA was dismantled.
"They must give up violence. They must stand down their terror machines. They must hand over their weapons of destruction that have been held illegally," he told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost.
Mr Murphy also met Mr Trimble, and the Sinn Féin and SDLP leaders, Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Mark Durkan, over the weekend. He rejected the entreaties from Mr Adams and Mr Durkan to lift suspension and reconvene the Assembly. "Everybody knows that if we restored the Assembly tomorrow then we would have six weeks according to the rules to establish a government. It doesn't take a political genius to work out it's highly unlikely," said Mr Murphy.
Mark Hennessy, PoliticalCorrespondent, adds :
Yesterday the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he would invite the DUP for talks in Dublin "with an open agenda", although there are signals that he may accept significant changes to the institutions to break the logjam. "I accept fully that the review [of the agreement\ is going to mean change. I don't want fundamental changes. I want to build on what we have," he told RTÉ's This Week programme.