Northern Ireland is moving towards a two-party system with the Ulster Unionists and SDLP increasingly marginalised, a Stormont Assembly member has claimed.
In an address to sixth formers at a Catholic grammar school in Dungannon last night, the text of which has only now been released, Democratic Unionist chairman Mr Maurice Morrow said the next local government and Westminster elections would confirm his party and Sinn Féin as the main parties in their communities.
The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said republicans must, in this new political context, face up to reality and fully disarm and abandon paramilitarism in return for a place in a power sharing government.
Mr Morrow told pupils at St Patrick's College: "None of the SDLP seats would appear to be safe from challenge by Sinn Féin and equally no Ulster Unionist MP can afford to relax with the continued rise of the DUP.
"It is clear that we are moving from a four-party system, with the UUP and SDLP in the lead, to increasingly a two-party system with the SDLP and UUP marginalised.
"I believe that last November's election has brought considerable clarity to the political situation in Northern Ireland.
"It must be clear to republicans now that only a total end to paramilitarism and decommissioning will allow them into an administration in Northern Ireland and it is clear to unionists that without nationalists there is unlikely to be any restoration of devolution," Mr Morrow said.
During a question-and-answer session with three schools in Ballymena, Sinn Féin Assembly member Mr Philip McGuigan today said the DUP was either unwilling or unable to strike a deal with nationalists.
The North Antrim MLA argued: "A big onus now rests with the two governments. "They must provide a paper on the way forward which maintains all the principles of the Good Friday Agreement. This is the only way we can move forward."