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Vote count begins in N Ireland assembly elections

Vote-counting was to begin yesterday in the Northern Irish assembly elections, which London and Dublin hope will spark a lasting power-sharing administration between Protestants and Catholics.

The count was to get under way at 9am, with the future of 250 candidates and the British province's prospects of restoring devolved government in Belfast hanging in the balance.

Northern Ireland's political parties reported that voter turnout on Wednesday was stronger than expected, for an election intended to revive the assembly -- more than four years after power was returned to London when the institution was suspended amid cross-community mistrust.

Early results were not expected until after midday, with the last of the 108 seats not expected to be filled before late today.

London and Dublin have jointly agreed on a timetable for getting Northern Ireland's squabbling politicians back to business, with March 26 looming as an all-or-nothing deadline.

If the largest Protestant and Catholic parties cannot agree on forming a power-sharing executive by that date, then the assembly will be axed and the province will be run from London indefinitely, with the participation of Dublin.

The assembly members will lose the salaries they have been claiming -- despite the body being suspended -- and Northern Ireland's citizens will face a punishing rise in water rates to bring them more into line with the rest of the UK.

The parties expected to finish first and second are the hardline Protestant Democratic Unionists (DUP), who want to keep the province as part of the UK, and Sinn Fein -- Catholic socialists and the political wing of former paramilitary group the Irish Republican Army (IRA) -- who favor integration into the Republic of Ireland.

According to the script by London and Dublin, the elections would then give a mandate to the two parties to agree an executive, with DUP firebrand leader Reverend Ian Paisley as first minister and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, as his deputy.

But as with the April 1998 peace accords that largely ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed, the wrangling seems likely to continue to the last minute.

If a deal is on the cards, all Northern Ireland's main political parties are keen on securing a financial package from London aimed at boosting the economy.

Wednesday's vote was the 10th time Northern Ireland's 1.1 million-strong electorate had been called to the polls since the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

The complex single transferable vote poll was the third for the troubled assembly, which has barely functioned and has been suspended since 2002, after IRA spy-ring allegations.

The institution has powers to decide on areas such as health, education and spending, while London reserves control over matters such as foreign affairs and defense.
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