Northern Ireland's cross community Alliance Party will never again bail out the peace process if the current voting system in the Assembly remains, its leader warned today.
Mr David Ford told his party's conference in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, today that Alliance would not tolerate a system that did not make cross community votes count.
In November, three Alliance MLAs - Mr David Ford, Ms Eileen Bell and former leader Mr Sean Neeson - temporarily changed their designation from 'other' to 'unionist'. They did so to ensure Mr David Trimble and Mr Mark Durkan were election as First and Deputy First Ministers.
Calling for a review of the voting system in May under the Belfast Agreement, the South Antrim MLA said: "The (British and Irish) governments cannot afford to stick their heads in the sand.
"There are no circumstances in which we will make further compromises to prop up a discredited system that doesn't work."
Under the current voting system to elect a First and Deputy First Minister, the joint candidates for the posts require 50 per cent plus one unionist MLAs and 50 per cent plus one of nationalists. The votes of cross community parties like Alliance and the Women's Coalition do not count.
Mr Ford welcomed this week's announcement of a second act of decommissioning by the IRA and called for reciprocal moves by loyalist paramilitaries, reminding their leaders they had an obligation to disarm under the Agreement too.
The Alliance leader also welcomed Britain’s decision not to grant paramilitaries on-the-run an amnesty. He demanded the safe return of those people forced out of North by republican and loyalist terror groups.
Mr Ford criticised Mr Trimble's call for a referendum on a united Ireland on the same day as next year's Assembly elections. The vote "would polarise the community," he said. "But the idea of holding it on the same day as the Assembly election beggars belief."
PA