SINN FÉIN and the DUP last night continued to heavily pressurise the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party to sign up to agreed-candidate pacts in the respective constituencies of Fermanagh-South Tyrone and South Belfast.
With candidates’ nominations closing on Tuesday the DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson and the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew were leading the charge in trying to strike pacts respectively with the UUP and the SDLP.
Hitherto, the British Tories and the UUP had pledged they would stand candidates in each of the North’s 18 constituencies under the banner of UCUNF (Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force) but last week they broke this pact to accept a unity unionist candidate for Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
The DUP and UCUNF agreed to stand aside to allow Rodney Connor, who recently retired as chief executive of Fermanagh Council, to challenge the Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew in Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
Now the DUP is trying to strike a similar arrangement in South Belfast in an attempt to oust the SDLP MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell. This unionist unity “model” should be applied in South Belfast, Mr Robinson said in Lisburn yesterday. He said that the only person resisting a unity candidate in South Belfast was UUP leader Sir Reg Empey, while also arguing it would be in the Conservatives’ interest to have a unionist in the House of Commons who would take the Conservative whip rather than Dr McDonnell, who generally sides with Labour.
“I urge UCUNF at this late stage to come to their senses and do what is right for the union,” he said.
Sir Reg Empey said the problem in South Belfast could be resolved by the DUP standing down its candidate Jimmy Spratt to give UCUNF candidate Paula Bradshaw a free unionist run.
“Many in the Ulster Unionist Party believe that present posturing by the DUP has more to do with trying to prevent an Ulster Unionist Party member from being elected to parliament than any other consideration,” he added.
Ms Gildernew followed up on the overtures to the SDLP from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams by yesterday saying that new SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie should be aware of the “anger, dismay and disappointment at the decision of the SDLP to reject Sinn Féin attempts to maximise nationalist representation”.
Sinn Féin offered to stand aside its candidate, Alex Maskey, in South Belfast to assist Dr McDonnell if SDLP candidate and former UTV journalist Fearghal McKinney gave Ms Gildernew a free nationalist run in Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
While Ms Ritchie insisted she would not be party to such a pact because it would be “sectarian”, Ms Gildernew said in Moy, Co Tyrone, that the SDLP leader should visit Fermanagh-South Tyrone to explain why “she wants to give a leg up to a unionist Tory”.
Mr Adams also wrote a letter to Ms Ritchie yesterday in which he was highly critical of her and her party.
But he also said that the SDLP and Sinn Féin had an “opportunity and a shared responsibility to work together to ensure the best possible outcome for the entire community from the forthcoming election”.
“It remains my view that we should co-operate towards this objective,” he added.
Dr McDonnell followed up on Ms Ritchie’s rejection of the deal over the two constituencies by saying a shared future could not be delivered by “sectarian pacts”.
“There is another way,” he said. “What we are seeing in South Belfast is the positive outworking of non-sectarian politics on the ground.
“It is important to note that with my team I go into every street, every road and every estate in this constituency. Gerry Adams has some way to go,” added Dr McDonnell.
