Election candidates declared

The Six Counties is facing its biggest election contest in years as
some 250 candidates launch their bids for seats in the troubled Belfast
Assembly.

A total of 108 Assembly seats will be up contested in 18 constituencies
when voters go to the polls on March 7.

Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists will have the most candidates, with
46 people running, followed by the Ulster Unionists on 38, Sinn Fein on
37 and the nationalist SDLP on 35.

The moderate unionist Alliance Party nominated 18 candidates across 17
constituencies.

Sinn Fein is contesting every constituency, with a number of new faces
on the ballot. It is fielding five candidates in the republican
heartland of west Belfast.

Republican Sinn Fein, which split from Gerry Adams's party 21 years
ago, will run in six constituencies with former PoW Geraldine Taylor
challenging Gerry Adams in West Belfast and former hunger striker
Brendan McLaughlin facing Martin McGuinness in Mid Ulster.

RSF veteran Joe O'Neill from Bundoran, County Donegal will contest West
Tyrone, while former PoW Michael McManus from Lisnaskea, County
Fermanagh, is standing in Fermanagh South-Tyrone where independent
republican Gerry McGeough is also running.

Dungiven RSF member Michael McGonigle is standing in East Derry while
former prisoner Barry Toman is running in Upper Bann.

RSF President Ruairi O Bradaigh said candidates would be campaigning
under the banner of "Smash Stormont" and confirmed they would not be
taking their seats if elected.

Mr O Bradaigh accused Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness of abandoning key
republican principles.

"They are rapidly becoming indistinguishable from the SDLP and
ultimately from unionists, with a small U," he said in a west Belfast
press conference on Tuesday.

"What the Provisional leadership is doing is in direct conflict with
the 1916 proclamation of the Republic and with the declaration of
independence of the first (all-Ireland) Dail. Their recent decisions
also conflict with the high ideals for which so many men and women of
all creeds have struggled, suffered and died over the centuries," he
added.

Mr O Bradaigh said that republicans had a right to bear arms to compel
Britain to leave Ireland.

"We uphold the right of the Irish people. President Bush, no friend of
ours, has said that every country is entitled to defend itself. Well,
surely the Irish people are entitled to defend themselves. Are they the
only people on the face of the earth that do not enjoy that right?" he
added.

He said candidates were receiving a good reception from voters.
Republican Sinn Fein is not registered as a party, however, and the RSF
party name will not appear alongside the names of the six candidates,
who are officially listed as independents.

The party is not contesting the Foyle constituency, where Peggy O'Hara,
the mother of hunger strike martyr Patsy O'Hara, is running as an
independent abstentionist republican.

SIX McCARTNEYS

In a surprise move, UK Unionist leader Robert McCartney put his name
forward as a candidate in six constituencies, as well as running other
candidates.

George Ennis, a former Assembly member with Ian Paisley's DUP, also
caused a surprise when he switched allegiances to become a candidate
for the UKUP.

McCartney strongly criticised the DUP for allowing suggestions that the
party might share power with Sinn Fein at Stormont in the aftermath of
the election.

"If I don't run and provide them with somebody on the ballot paper who
represents 'NO' to Sinn Fein in government - then they have no voice at
all," he said. That is my sole reason for taking on this electoral
burden," he said.

The DUP has still not released its manifesto, which will be closely
studied by all sides. The British government has threatened to cancel
the election if the manifesto does not allow for a historic new
administration, with Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness
jointly at its helm. There have been rumours that the DUP could see a
split over the policy.

Hardline loyalist Willie Frazer also put his name forward in two
constituencies, as an independent in Newry and Armagh and also in
Foyle.

There was a surprise return to politics by the former leader of the now
defunct Northern Ireland Unionist Party, Cedric Wilson in Strangford,
who in 1998 was elected to the Assembly in the constituency.

The loyalist Progressive Unionist Party, who lost their former leader
David Ervine, when he suddenly died last month at the age of 53, will
run in three constituencies.

Anti-collusion campaigner Raymond McCord, who is standing as an
independent in north Belfast, is set to attract votes from both
communities.

The campaign by McCord, whose son was murdered by the UVF in collusion
with the RUC/PSNI police, appears to have put the PUP out of standing
in the Assembly elections in North Belfast.

Raymond McCord says the fall out from the Police Ombudsman's report
into the 1997 death of his son has led the PUP to abandon all hope of
capturing a seat in the north of the city.

He asked: "Who is going to vote for the PUP in North Belfast after
Nuala O'Loan's report?

"The PUP knows it has no chance in North Belfast and it is frightened
of standing a candidate in case they get less votes than me."

Former DUP Assembly member Paul Berry, who was forced to quit the party
for personal reasons, will be running in the Newry and Armagh
constituency, while veteran socialist Eamonn McCann is again on the
ballot papers in Derry.