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23/10/2003
Elections hold key to democracy says Paisley
Forthcoming elections will give unionists the chance to end IRA concessions and the Good Friday Agreement, DUP leader Ian Paisley has said.
Speaking at DUP Headquarters, the North Antrim MP said it was time ordinary decent people had their say in next month's elections, so that "democracy could triumph".
"Let no one be in any doubt that this election offers the people of Northern Ireland a simple choice," Dr Paisley said.
"Four more years of Trimble delivered concessions to Sinn Fein/IRA or the opportunity to negotiate a new and fair deal that Unionists as well as nationalists can support. This election is the opportunity to deliver a verdict on what Trimble and the Official Unionists have done over the past five years.
"They signed up to a deal, which has delivered concessions to the IRA, not just on one day in 1998, but for every day since. The pain and betrayal felt by unionists at the Belfast Agreement has not passed with time, but has intensified as the terrorists have made a mockery of the democratic system."
Dr Paisley said that unionism was now at a crossroads in which either terrorism would be represented in government or a new deal was implemented.
"Having seen the Belfast Agreement fail Northern Ireland in general and the Unionist community in particular, the DUP is determined to prevent a further advancement of the Republican agenda," Dr Paisley concluded.
(MB)
Speaking at DUP Headquarters, the North Antrim MP said it was time ordinary decent people had their say in next month's elections, so that "democracy could triumph".
"Let no one be in any doubt that this election offers the people of Northern Ireland a simple choice," Dr Paisley said.
"Four more years of Trimble delivered concessions to Sinn Fein/IRA or the opportunity to negotiate a new and fair deal that Unionists as well as nationalists can support. This election is the opportunity to deliver a verdict on what Trimble and the Official Unionists have done over the past five years.
"They signed up to a deal, which has delivered concessions to the IRA, not just on one day in 1998, but for every day since. The pain and betrayal felt by unionists at the Belfast Agreement has not passed with time, but has intensified as the terrorists have made a mockery of the democratic system."
Dr Paisley said that unionism was now at a crossroads in which either terrorism would be represented in government or a new deal was implemented.
"Having seen the Belfast Agreement fail Northern Ireland in general and the Unionist community in particular, the DUP is determined to prevent a further advancement of the Republican agenda," Dr Paisley concluded.
(MB)
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