AN independent chairperson and secretariat should be appointed to the body which emerges from the forthcoming Northern Ireland elections, Democratic Left has said.
A DL delegation, led by its regional chairman in the North, Mr Paddy Joe Mclean, met the Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, at Stormont yesterday. The delegation proposed a list system to facilitate "the broadest and widest range of political ideas and cater for the diversity of political views".
DL said the body should not be confined specifically to constitutional issues "but should include social, economic and cultural matters". It was vital to give the general public access to the body "so as to express their views as to how politics might provide answers to their everyday concerns".
Mr Mclean said it was of vital importance that the recent demonstrations for peace should be expressed politically through an all Ireland referendum.
Sir Patrick also met delegation from the Workers' Party and the Alliance Party. Commenting on the format of the elections, the WP chairman in Northern Ireland, Mr Tom French, said "We want to make sure that any elective process ensures the inclusion of all the relevant parties in Northern Ireland.
"At the end of the day whether there's a body set up or not we believe that any negotiations must take place on a totally inclusive basis which would, equalise the negotiating groups.
Following a meeting with the Democratic Unionist Party, the Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice, criticised Mr Seamus Mallon's statement that the SDLP would not meet the main unionist parties at any venue other than Castle Buildings at Stormont, the main location for the discussions about the format of the elections.
(Mr Mallon's statement was modified later by his party leader, Mr John Hume, who said the SDLP had a "clear, strong preference" for meeting there.)
Dr Alderdice said "I hope people are not going to take the position that if someone won't meet them in one place they won't meet them somewhere else. That really does contribute to a process where we all get nowhere."
Parties should meet as often as possible, in as constructive a way as possible, in whatever format was agreeable to the parties and "actually get somewhere", he added.
A four way meeting also took place at Stormont between the Alliance Party, the Workers' Party and the two loyalist fringe parties, the PUP and the UDP.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, denied his party was boycotting the discussions. "We're not boycotting anything," he said. "What is going on at the moment is not talks, not even really talks about talks, but a series of consultations, and of course we have been consulting with the government and other parties for some time and will continue to do so."
A similar point was made by the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson. Speaking after a meeting with the Alliance Party, he said "The communique, the statement by the prime minister in the House of Commons and the letter that we received from the Secretary of State none of those documents indicated any requirement for any political party to go to any particular venue."
"It required them to take part in intensive consultations in a format that suited themselves best, so there is nothing particularly about the bricks and mortar of Castle Buildings that required us to be there. We are taking part in this intensive consultation period."
The DUP and Alliance Party said they planned to meet again next week following what they called yesterday's valuable talks.