Reid hits out at election challenge

Secretary of State Dr John Reid has hit out at the DUP over its decision to mount a legal challenge over the election of David Trimble and Mark Durkan as First and Deputy First Minister's last November.

In a split vote the Law Lords ruled by a 3-2 majority that Dr Reid had acted lawfully when extending the six-week deadline for the elections of the first and deputy first minister on November 6.

Speaking in response to the decision the Secretary of State said: "We believed all along that we acted entirely lawfully and properly last November, to secure the stability of the institutions for the good of all the people of Northern Ireland. All the courts before whom this case has come, including now the highest legal authority in the country, have confirmed that we were right.

“It is regrettable that considerable sums of public money, which should have been devoted to improving public services for the people of Northern Ireland, were used to fight narrow party political battles in the court room.

“The Government will do all it can to ensure that, between now and the elections in May next year, the devolved institutions, under the sound leadership of David Trimble and Mark Durkan, deliver as effectively as they can to the people of Northern Ireland the benefits the Agreement has made possible.”

First Minister, David Trimble, and Deputy First Minister, Mark Durkan, also welcomed the decision by the House of Lords.

The DUP launched their legal action after Mr Trimble resigned his post in August and, in the political wrangling that followed, saw his re-election secured only after the Secretary of State extended the deadline period.

The DUP argued that this decision ran contrary to a clause in the Good Friday Agreement which provides that new elections should be called in the event that the office of first minister is left vacant for over six-weeks. In the DUP's view, new assembly elections should have been called.

One of the three Law Lords who rejected the appeal, Lord Bingham, said that the agreement was not intended to override the will of the assembly and the Secretary of State.

(MB)