'RSF satisfied with outcome - time to consider alternatives'

national | politics / elections | press release Monday December 01, 2003 12:37 by Ailín - RSF

The final outcome of the Stormont assembly election indicates a deadlock as far as the Agreement is concerned. Republican Sinn Féin said at the outset five-and-a-half years ago that the Agreement was not a settlement and would not work in the medium to long-term.

Because it was debarred from the election by the political test oath required of candidates for nomination, Republican Sinn Féin called for either a boycott of the polls or a spoiling of votes.

We would not (a) disown publicly the organisations of the Republican Movement and (b) deny the right of the Irish people to resist English rule in Ireland and were therefore excluded from what was not a free and fair election.

For our part we are satisfied that 170,000 voters did not register and at that the turnout was significantly down throughout the Six Counties while the number of spoiled votes has not been revealed.

Tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed by our members and hundreds of posters displayed as well as slogans painted. An Agreement which is based on a sectarian headcount and is an artificially contrived method to govern an artificial statelet cannot survive in the long run.

A nine-county Ulster within a four-province federation, with optimum devolution within the provinces, is the only way forward. It will provide power and decision-making to all communities and sections of the people of Ireland.

Yet again the artificial means to copper-fasten English rule here has met with failure. It is time to consider other alternatives.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President Republican Sinn Féin