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27/07/2010
SF First Minister If 'Will Of People': Paisley
The seminal former DUP leader Ian Paisley - now Lord Bannside - has said he believed the creation of a single united unionist party is a "non-runner".
In an exclusive Belfast News Letter interview, he argued that limiting the choice open to voters is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power.
Commenting at the same time on the possibility that a failure to agree joint unionist candidates in the forthcoming Assembly poll could see a Sinn Fein First Minister, he said he would have to accept the "will of the people".
However he pledged to play his part in preventing that happening in the future and said that he supported better inter-party relationships, but argued that a single party would remove choice from the electorate.
"Limiting that choice is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power," he said.
(BMcC/GK)
In an exclusive Belfast News Letter interview, he argued that limiting the choice open to voters is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power.
Commenting at the same time on the possibility that a failure to agree joint unionist candidates in the forthcoming Assembly poll could see a Sinn Fein First Minister, he said he would have to accept the "will of the people".
However he pledged to play his part in preventing that happening in the future and said that he supported better inter-party relationships, but argued that a single party would remove choice from the electorate.
"Limiting that choice is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power," he said.
(BMcC/GK)
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