Overwhelming Ulster ‘No’ sought

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 6

Overwhelming Ulster ‘No’ sought

NZPA-Reuter Belfast Northern Ireland was voting yesterday in byelections forced on the province by Protestant politicians opposed to the recently-signed AngloIrish agreement. The accord, which gives the Dublin government a say in Northern Irish affairs, is the only campaign issue and the main interest is on the size of the poll rather than the number of seats won. Protestant - Unionist members of the British

Parliament, who caused the by-elections by resigning in protest against last November’s Anglo-Irish agreement on the province, are staging the poll as a referendum against the accotd. The British Government has refused a referendum and has said that the poll result will have no effect on the agreement. Fifteen seats are being contested, out of 17 in the province. The province’s Protestant majority appear firmly opposed to the agreement and their

Unionist candidates expect to be returned comfortably, possibly except for one. Unionist , leaders are seeking a maximum turnout to back their demands that the British Government tear up the agreement, which they see as a first step towards a united Ireland. Some Unionists have predicted a vote for their candidates of 500,000, over half the total electorate. Anything less than the 420,000 they polled in the last General Election, in 1983, would be a big

disappointment, officials said.

Catholic - nationalists, who are in a two-to-three minority in the province, are contesting only four of the seats, those in areas with a majority of nationalist voters. But unlike the two Unionist parties, which have forged an electoral pact giving their candidates a clear run, the nationalist vote is split between the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Fein, political wing of the Irish Republican Army.

Like the Unionists, the S.D.L.P. has called for a big turn-out to demonstrate support for the new agreement. Sinn Fein opposes the accord on the grounds that it legitimises the British presence in the north, which the I.R.A. and other guerrilla groups are fighting to end.

The S.D.L.P.’s main campaign was in the border constituency of Newry-Armagh, where the deputy leader, Seamus Mallon, stands a chance of taking the seat from the Unionist, Jim Nicholson.