Belfast, Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party on Saturday rejected a British deadline to share power with Catholics, officials said, launching a showdown that could end in the collapse of the territory’s legislature.
More than 100 officials from Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party voted overwhelmingly to reject Britain’s long-held demand for a 12-member administration to be formed and receive powers by Monday, according to officials in the party and the British government, speaking anonymously because negotiations were continuing.
Britain insists the Northern Ireland Assembly will be shut down immediately in favor of intensified Irish government involvement in the British territory if the Monday deadline is missed.
The officials said Paisley and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were involved in last-minute telephone negotiations. They said the Protestant party called on Britain to pass an emergency bill to delay the deadline until May. In exchange, Paisley would agree to meet for the first time with Gerry Adams, leader of the major Catholic-backed party, Sinn Fein.
Cross-community cooperation was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 1998 peace accord but has failed since 2002 amid Protestant hostility to Sinn Fein.
