THE LEADER of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party, Jim Allister, has called on the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party to pledge that if Martin McGuinness is in a position to be first minister, they will not propose anyone for the position of deputy first minister.
Launching his party’s Assembly election manifesto yesterday, Mr Allister said that in such a scenario, refusing to propose a deputy first minister would mean Mr McGuinness could not take the first minister post – even if Sinn Féin won most seats.
Mr Allister contended that rather than creating political deadlock, such a move would lead to a situation where the parties could be forced to agree to voluntary coalition rather then the current “mandatory coalition”.
“You have to go to North Korea to find a country where you are not allowed to have an opposition. Well, we are not North Korea, we are Northern Ireland, and it is vital that we inject back into our system those fundamentals of democracy.”
Mr Allister said the DUP could be a catalyst for change and the creation of a voluntary coalition. “Do you want more of the same – four more years of squabble, deadlock, waste and inactivity at Stormont, where the biggest success that can be claimed is that the doors are still open, while there’s 60,000 people unemployed, huge waste, phenomenal loss in education and health – or do you want something better?”
The TUV is running 12 candidates in the Assembly elections on May 5th, with Mr Allister viewed as having a good chance of taking a seat in North Antrim – where in last year’s Westminster election he lost to the DUP’s Ian Paisley jnr.
Mr Allister said that “IRA/Sinn Féin” was unfit to hold any office in the Northern Executive. He accused the DUP of propping up “IRA/Sinn Féin” in the executive, adding that “voting for those who put Sinn Féin into government will keep them there”.
“TUV believes that by law we should have no terrorists in government, in contrast to others who happily sit in government with them.”
He accused Sinn Féin Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane of having “Ruaned” the education system, and said Sinn Féin Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy had mismanaged the Christmas water crisis.
“He was totally out of his depth but because of the absence of accountability mechanisms he was untouchable,” said Mr Allister.
He complained about a “mind-boggling waste” of public money. “We had £400 million during the course of the last Assembly poured down the drain of useless non-productive North-South bodies. We give £61 million to the GAA – £30 million more to the football than they ever asked for – but we can’t find the funds to open and to run a cancer unit in Londonderry.”
The TUV manifesto also calls for a revitalised economic strategy for Northern Ireland, an end to “budgetary mismanagement” in the Northern Executive, support for victims of paramilitary violence and the rejection of the conflict transformation centre at the Maze prison site which Mr Allister described as an “IRA shrine”.