THE leader of the Alliance Party, Dr John Alderdice, said last night he was convinced that if the elections did not take place in the North there would not be all party talks.
Speaking on the RTE television programme, Questions and Answers, Dr Alderdice said they should not get too "hung up" on the elections, instead they should look to the opportunities being offered by the all party talks. The only way to get all of the parties together for talks was to hold the elections.
Mr Martin McGuinness, ardchomhairle, Sinn Fein, said they were very unhappy that they were having an election and they believed it would only establish what they already knew about the parties in the North. He was not expecting any surprises. They would prefer if there was no election. What was important was to get a negotiated settlement on the North.
The leader of the SDLP, Mr John Hume, agreed that all party talks were the most important thing. They had to keep this high on the agenda. He said one of the main benefits of the ceasefire had been to improve the atmosphere in the North. The will for peace among the people was very powerful and that had to be translated into reality. He wanted to see an absolute cessation of violence.
He was hopeful that they would achieve all party talks in a peaceful atmosphere. The SDLP believed in dialogue. He could not understand people in politics not talking to each other. The essence of politics was dialogue. He believed there was now the greatest opportunity ever of getting the gun out of Irish politics forever.