Sinn Fein poll pact rejected

Gerry Adams "made informal approach to the SDLP"

The SDLP rejected an assembly election voting pact with Sinn Fein, Mark Durkan has said.

The SDLP leader said he had received an informal approach from Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams about a nationalist poll deal.

Speaking at the launch of the SDLP's manifesto on Thursday, Mr Durkan said that in a tight PR (proportional representation) election, transferred votes could decide the course of the future.

He appealed to pro-Agreement voters to choose the SDLP. He said SDLP voters should support pro-Agreement candidates, but would not define which unionists fell into that category.

The SDLP leader also accused Sinn Fein of actively discouraging voters from transferring to his party.

He claimed Sinn Fein members had misled some voters on the ground by telling them transfers to other parties would spoil their votes.

It is Sinn Fein's belief that we will be in a position to achieve either the first or deputy first minister Bairbre de Brun

However, the Democratic Unionist Party's Nigel Dodds said the SDLP's manifesto "with its overt all-Ireland agenda makes a mockery of their request for unionists' transfers".

"It is, to adapt a phrase, 'Sinn Fein lite'. It is a green-print for a united Ireland by stealth," said Mr Dodds.

"Having received a significant blow with the census figures last year, they can see that the only route to a united Ireland is through greater harmonisation. That is the agenda they have proposed and the agenda which must be resisted."

Also on the campaign trail on Thursday, Sinn Fein's Bairbre de Brun said it was her party's belief "that we will be in a position to achieve either the first or deputy first minister".

"In addition to this we want to continue the work that we started in education and health and will be seeking these departments once again in the new assembly."

"Other parties did not see education and health as priorities. We did. This remains the case."

The Ulster Unionist Party's Diana Peacocke said that one function of the new assembly must be to create parity between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK for care given to terminally ill cancer patients.

"English and Scottish hospices receive 50% of their funding from the NHS against lower than 30% in Northern Ireland and we have a situation where all the specialist palliative care beds in the province are inside the voluntary sector and in very many cases funded by the voluntary sector," she said.