TUV challenges DUP and UUP to declare willingness to block McGuinness
21 March 2011
Statement from TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“As the DUP rushes to rubbish any suggestion from the UUP of co-operation to stop the threat, which the DUP created, of their partner McGuinness as First Minister, the one route guaranteed to stop any such advance by Sinn Fein is studiously avoided by the DUP.
“The answer is simple. Even if Sinn Fein emerged as the biggest Assembly party, McGuinness can be stopped in his tracks by unionist MLAs refusing to nominate a deputy. Hence, I repeat my challenge to both DUP and UUP to pledge now, pre-election, that they, like TUV, would not nominate a deputy First Minister and thereby at a stroke they remove the threat of a Sinn Fein First Minister. That is the real test of their commitment and concern.
“The reason the DUP wants to dodge this challenge is because in truth they want to keep alive the threat of McGuinness as First Minister as a devious ploy to try and coerce people to vote for them – the party that gave us Sinn Fein to rule over us.”
