THE BRITISH Conservative Party, if returned to power, would seek to alter the current Stormont powersharing system to one of voluntary coalition, the Tory spokesman on Northern Ireland Owen Paterson has stated.
The party’s wanted to do away with the element of the 1998 Belfast Agreement allowing the Northern Executive to be run by unionists and nationalists on a power-sharing basis.Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness recently warned that Sinn Féin would not countenance any such change to the Belfast Agreement, because it would be tantamount to a return to unionist majority rule.
DUP and Ulster Unionist politicians favour such an eventual system.The Ulster Unionists and the Conservatives have agreed a pact to contest elections under the banner of the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force.
Mr Paterson, in Northern Ireland last week formalising the UUP link-up, said the Conservatives would seek to renegotiate the powersharing system if it won the next British general election.
Meanwhile, the main parties, apart from the DUP, have chosen candidates to contest the European elections in the three-seat constituency in June.
The Alliance Party selected North Down council mayor Ian Parsley (31) to run, while the three sitting MEPs – Bairbre de Brún (Sinn Féin), Jim Nicholson (UUP) and Jim Allister (TUV) – are all running. North Belfast MLA Alban Maginness (SDLP) is running, while the Green candidate is Steven Agnew, a research officer for Green MLA Brian Wilson.
