Poll campaign marked by bitter wrangling

With the possible outcome the final eclipsing of both the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP by, respectively, the Rev. Ian Paisley’s DUP and Sinn Fein, the stakes are high enough for the parties to scrape the bottom of the political barrel.
The most serious accusation is that the DUP was behind police raids on the home and office of Michael Copeland, the UUP assemblyman for East Belfast. He said on Friday he could think of no reason for the raids.
The UUP election manifesto launch was, as a result, delayed by 48 hours so Copeland could clarify his position with the police. He said he assumes the police are linking him with the case of an estate agent accused of loyalist money-laundering.
Copeland insists, however, that he has done nothing illegal, with party sources blaming the DUP for making allegations against him, resulting in inevitable electoral damage.
The East Antrim DUP candidate, Sammy Wilson, rejected the UUP claims. “I have spoken to the deputy chief constable, who has confirmed their action was not the result of a complaint from the DUP,” he said.
The South Antrim DUP candidate, William McCrea, said the UUP leader David Trimble must be “desperate” after he allegedly offered Alliance leader David Ford a peerage (membership of the House of Lords) if his party withdrew from four constituencies.
Trimble has not denied the claim, despite being invited to do so publicly.
McCrea also said Trimble’s offer raised serious questions about the awarding of peerages. “Questions have already been raised about the large number of peerages for Trimble’s pro-Agreement acolytes,” he said.
In another claim, the SDLP has accused Sinn Fein of leaking minutes of a 1994 meeting involving Eddie McGrady, its South Down MP, and a senior British official during which McGrady allegedly criticized John Hume’s peace talks with Gerry Adams.
McGrady’s rival for the seat, Caitiona Ruane, said she “utterly refuted” the SDLP leak allegation and said it was “a futile attempt to distract attention from the substance of the document.”
Said the SDLP’s Alex Attwood: “People will be appalled that a stolen document is being used against Eddie McGrady in a dirty tricks operation. They will also strongly disapprove of Caitriona Ruane trying to exploit this stolen document for Sinn Fein’s electoral advantage.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein said that the normal protocol of Irish ministers declining to endorse party political campaigns during election time has been broken.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern recently visited McGrady’s South Down constituency and the Progressive Democrat minister for justice, Michael McDowell, attended an SDLP meeting in the South Belfast constituency of the SDLP deputy leader, Alastair McDonnell.
Ahern and McDowell said their meetings had been scheduled well before the election was called and accused Sinn Fein of being “partitionist.” The Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, said he welcomed ministers traveling North at any time, but they had broken protocol by openly campaigning for the SDLP.
And in another internal unionist controversy, the DUP has said that UUP election slogan asking “decent” people to vote for it, suggested that not voting for that party was “indecent” and thus slandered the majority of unionists.
And in another dispute between the parties, the DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, accused UUP leader Trimble of misrepresenting him over the length of time he believed it would take before the DUP would share power with republicans.
“David Trimble is an unmitigated liar who, in his own electoral panic, is prepared to lie through his teeth about the position of others and concoct quotes never uttered to bolster what must be the most politically dishonest UUP campaign ever,” he said. “At no time have I ever said or suggested there would be ‘nothing happening for 25 years.’ That is a downright and deliberate lie. What I have said is that it may take a generation for the republican movement to divest itself of criminality.”