Procedural wrangling dogs start of meetings

THE inaugural meeting of the Northern Ireland Forum, which, was established to promote political accommodation among the two communities in the North, was marked by tedious procedural wrangling and jockeying for position.

But while little business was transacted it was, at least, conducted in relative good humour, apart from occasional flashes of acrimony.

The forum, which met in the Interpoint Centre in Belfast for 31/2 hours yesterday afternoon, failed to elect a chairperson but managed to select two sub committees, even though the DUP insisted one of them, a rules committee, was elected illegally.

The forum is to meet again next Friday when it hopes to resolve the election of a chairperson.

In the meantime Mr John Gorman, a Catholic member of the Ulster Unionist Party who stamped his own unconventional imprint on the proceedings, will remain as interim chairman.

In the coming days party representatives will meet to see if consensus can be found on electing a chairperson.

It was agreed that each party would nominate potential chairpersons from inside or outside the forum. They would be considered for election at next Friday's meeting.

There was no repeat of the political convulsions earlier in the week at Stormont mostly involving the main unionist parties over the selection of Senator George Mitchell as chairman of the all party talks. But there was a further illustration of the divisions within mainstream unionism.

While the DUP and Mr Robert McCartney's UK Unionist Party attempted to exclude the smaller parties from direct election to rules committee the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP voted together in ensuring that all nine parties present in the chamber were elected to this committee.

The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, and Mr McCartney argued that the 10 members of the rules committee should be elected on the basis of the electoral strengths of the parties. Under standing orders it was illegal to proceed otherwise, they claimed.

This would have excluded the two fringe loyalist parties, the Women's Coalition and Labour. But the UUP and the SDLP, with Mr Ken Maginnis MP and Mr Eddie McGrady MP leading the argument, maintained that the spirit of the ground rules insisted that each party should be represented on the rules committee.

Mr John Hume, the SDLP leader, said the purpose of the forum was to promote dialogue, understanding and consensus across the communities in Northern Ireland. "The best way of helping that is to allow everybody representation on the committee," he added.

The members of the rules committee, and of the business committee, which will have two members each from the UUP, DUP and SDLP and one each from the other parties, may themselves subsequently increase memberships to reflect party strengths.

A vacant chair has been effectively left in each of these committees for Sinn Fein should it decide to join the forum.

Mr Gorman, the chairman, who comes from a British military background, maintained a loose leash on proceedings. While this led to protracted procedural wrangling, most of the meeting, apart from some brief ill natured exchanges, was conducted informally and in relative good humour.