Stormont, a blot on democratic landscape - Allister
26 February 2013
Giving evidence to the House of Commons' Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, sitting at Stormont today, TUV Leader Jim Allister said the twin prohibition in the Belfast Agreement on an Opposition and the denial of the right to vote a party out of government, made the Stormont arrangements a blot on the democratic landscape of the western world.
Expressing disappointment that the new NI Bill failed to deal with democratising Stormont, the TUV Leader said in consequence Northern Ireland would continue to suffer a huge democratic deficit and its people denied fundamental rights taken for granted elsewhere. "By making change dependent on all-party support, the Government is subjecting vital democratic change to the Sinn Fein veto, and, thereby, dooming it to paralysis. Hence, the infamy of Stormont, as failing the basic democratic test, will continue."
