ALLIANCE PARTY CONFERENCE: Alliance will not rescue the Belfast Agreement again by redesignating itself in Stormont votes, delegates to the party's 32nd annual conference heard at the weekend. Mr David Ford, the party leader, warned the two governments that unless the "discredited" system which forced MLAs to declare themselves unionist, nationalist or "others" was changed, then its five members would not alter their cross-community status to rescue the accord.
Mr Ford also criticised the pro-agreement parties for failing to act in the best interests of the Belfast Agreement and lambasted the Executive on its legislative record. He also rededicated the party to fighting what he called the institutionalised sectarianism and segregation in Northern society.
The First Minister, Mr David Trimble, was singled out for criticism over his remarks about the alleged sectarian nature of society in the Republic. "It is never right to refer to anywhere as pathetic, but even on the substance, he is wrong," said Mr Ford.
His address stressed the need for the British and Irish governments to address the voting system at Stormont and insisted they do it at the review of the agreement due at the end of next month.
He referred to early last November when three Alliance members redesignated themselves as "unionist" to ensure the election of Mr Trimble and Mr Mark Durkan as First and Deputy First Ministers - a move, he said, which made him feel physically sick.
Under the system in the Assembly to elect a First and Deputy First Minister, the joint candidates for the posts require 50 per cent plus one of unionist MLAs and 50 per cent plus one of nationalists. The votes of parties such as Alliance and the Women's Coalition don't count.
This was the third time Alliance had acted to save the agreement and its institutions, Mr Ford told the conference. The party put forward the motion not to accept the resignation in July 1999 of the then Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon. This, he claimed, avoided an awkward early election. Alliance also stood down in key constituencies to the benefit of pro-agreement candidates in last year's Westminster election.
He left the brunt of his criticism for the designated voting system in Stormont. "There are no circumstances in which we will make further compromises to prop up a discredited system that doesn't work - especially when ample warning has been given," he said.
He said the voting arrangement "institutionalises the sectarian divisions of our society. It fails to account for the possibility of political and demographic change. It refuses to accept that more and more people have open, multiple identities."
Mr Ford also criticised the SDLP for insisting the system was a vital part of the agreement, saying that the party of "one man one vote" now seemed to be believe that the votes of some should be worth more than others.
He called on the IRA to make its decommissioning acts more transparent and for the loyalist paramilitaries to put their weapons beyond use.
Mr Ford warned: "I remember the good old days when the agreement was seen as a win-win by all sections of the community. Today it is seen as a zero-sum game, with each development as either a win or lose for one side of the community or another. There have been too many sectarian trade-offs, with a lack of balance in making the agreement work for everyone.
"A concession to the extremes of unionism matched by a concession to republicans is not the way to inspire confidence."
He said the 14 ministers in the Executive, which does not include an Alliance nominee, had a pitiful record to date, but they still had a year before the next Assembly elections to do something.