Hardliners triumph at Northern Ireland polls

BELFAST - Hardliners on both sides of Northern Ireland's sectarian divide made gains in the elections today, as a Nobel laureate and architect of a 1998 peace deal was thrown out of office by the voters.

David Trimble, a Nobel laureate and moderate Protestant who tried to persuade sceptical pro-British "unionists" to embrace a comprise with their Catholic republican foes, lost his seat in parliament.

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) he leads, the dominant force in Northern Ireland politics for most of the province's history, was left with just one seat as the Democratic Unionists (DUP) of firebrand preacher Ian Paisley ate into its support.

"The situation in Northern Ireland is much better as a result of what we have done, and I am very proud of that achievement," said Trimble as he conceded defeat in a packed election hall while DUP supporters beat drums outside.

Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) political ally, shrugged off a torrent of criticism over its links to the outlawed guerrilla group to gain ground from moderate rivals.

"For the people of West Belfast to return me with an increased percentage ... I think that's a huge vindication of Sinn Fein's position," leader Gerry Adams told the BBC after winning a thumping majority in staunchly Catholic West Belfast.

The results followed the trend of recent elections, where divided Protestant and Catholic communities have increasingly looked to the parties seen as the toughest negotiators.

Attention will now switch to the IRA, which is expected to respond in the coming weeks to a call from Adams at the start of the campaign for it to renounce violence and embrace politics.

IRA MOVE AWAITED

"We await a reply to this appeal," said Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern in a statement late on Friday. "That reply must be clear and it must be decisive."

With the last votes from Thursday's election counted, the DUP had increased its representation in parliament from six seats to nine. Sinn Fein, whose members do not take up their seats, won five, up from four last time.

The results underline the difficulty of the task facing Prime Minister Tony Blair, re-elected for a third term, as he seeks to turn the uneasy peace ushered in by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement into a lasting political settlement.

In a sign of how seriously he takes the peace process, once seen as one of his main achievements, Blair named heavyweight ally Peter Hain as his new Northern Ireland Secretary.

A jubilant Paisley arrived at Trimble's count centre in Banbridge, a mainly Protestant commuter town southwest of Belfast, flanked by cheering supporters waving British flags.

"He (Trimble) wouldn't listen to anybody, so he dug his own grave and buried himself," said Paisley, 79, who took no part in negotiating the Good Friday accord and still opposes it.

The 1998 deal, co-guaranteed by Britain and Ireland, sought to end a 30-year conflict in which 3,600 peopled died by setting up a power-sharing semi-autonomous government in Belfast.

The violence has largely stopped but rows over the continued existence of the IRA have prevented the establishment of a stable government, and direct rule from London resumed in 2002.

Northern Irish politics is divided along sectarian lines, with unionists, from the Protestant majority, supporting the political union with Britain, and Catholic nationalists and republicans wanting an end to British rule and a united Ireland.

In recent elections Catholic voters have rewarded Sinn Fein for what many see as the party's role in pushing the IRA, observing a ceasefire since 1997, towards a peaceful future.

But Protestants, who are angry the IRA retains arms and distrust its political ally, have punished the UUP, who many believe has made too many concessions for too few gains.

- REUTERS