Shock defeat for David Trimble

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, NOV. 2. Just when the peace process in Northern Ireland was all set to get back on track, it suffered a major blow on Friday when the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) chief, Mr. David Trimble, failed to get re-elected as first minister of the provincial assembly after two of his party hardliners voted against him saying that the IRA's claims on decommissioning were not convincing. Mr. Mark Durkan of the Socialist and Labour Democratic Party (SDLP), who contested for deputy leader, was also defeated.

The development, which sent shock waves through the political establishment, means that the process of normalisation in Northern Ireland which began last week after the IRA's historic move to start decommissioning is back to square one. Downing Street admitted that it was a ``setback'' and late this evening the Northern Ireland secretary, Dr. John Reid, was holding emergency talks with political parties in Belfast to find a way out of the new crisis. If no solution is found until Saturday midnight - the constitutional deadline for reviving the political process - then the British Government would be forced to either suspend the assembly or call fresh elections.

Several proposals were being tossed around, and one that Mr. Trimble appeared to endorse was to change the election rules to make it possible for him and Mr. Durkan to get re-elected on the strength of the support they got today. Under the present rules, they should have got the support of the majority of all groups represented in the assembly. While they received the requisite support of all others, they got only 49.2 per cent of the Unionist votes because two UUP rebels Ms. Pauline Armitage and Mr. Peter Weir, refused to support them. There was a move to redesignate two members of the independent Women's Coalition Party as ``Unionists'' and treat their votes as Unionist votes. This would give Mr. Trimble and Mr. Durkan, the 50 per cent Unionist support they need.

Mr. Trimble did not rule out accepting the proposal but said:``it is a delicate matter and we need to look at it carefully.'' Mr. Durkan called for concerted efforts by Unionists to avert a crisis but refused to comment directly on the proposal to change the rules. Both attacked Ms. Armitage and Mr. Weir for destroying the peace process. The SDLP leader Mr. John Hume who played a crucial role in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement joined Mr. Trimble in accused them of ``undermining'' the will of the people who, they said, were overwhelmingly in favour of the peace process.

Mr. Trimble said the rebels had ``behaved dishonestly'' in order to grab ``15-minute fame''. However, he urged the people not to despair and claimed that the peace process was ``remarkably robust''. For once, his views were echoed by the Sinn Fein leader, Mr. Martin McGuinness, who said the vast majority of people were ``rock solid'' behind the peace efforts, and reiterated his party's support for it. Mr. Trimble came in for indirect criticism from some quarters for creating a situation which led to the crisis. His re-election became necessary because he had resigned as first minister in July to pressure the IRA into decommissioning. ``Had he not resigned as we pleaded with him not to, the situation in which he finds himself today would not have arisen,'' an SDLP leader said. In a sense, he had become a victim of his own actions, and ironically been defeated by his own party members rather than his political enemies.

The outcome was not entirely unexpected as Ms. Armitage and Mr. Weir had already made their intentions clear but the UUP leadership had hoped that they could be persuaded to fall in line. In the event, they stuck to their position that they would not return to the peace process until the IRA gave more details of how it proposed to pursue decommissioning. Both questioned the secrecy which has surrounded the decommissioning process with no details available of the quantity of arms which were destroyed last week, and no indication of when further decommissioning would take place.

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Section  : International
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