THE DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, has said that his party will not negotiate with Sinn Fein even after elections as long as arms have not been decommissioned, writes Dick Grogan in Belfast.
Dr Paisley said "We are very adamant about this we will not be negotiating with the IRA (sic) in the assembly until this decommissioning is dealt with by the government and (until) we are agreed that it is dealt with properly."
He added "We must make that perfectly clear because there are sections of the British government who are trying to say that ... the election is to get all parties into negotiation with the IRA even though the IRA hold on to their arms That is not so and we would like to nail that lie today."
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said however that an elected convention could take evidence from all quarters and would have the power to talk with the Irish Government whenever it was appropriate to do so.
The DUP leadership is expected to discuss its views on the form an election should take when it meets the Northern Political Development Minister, Mr Michael Ancram, later this week.
Meanwhile, the loyalist fringe parties, the UDP and PUP, and `the Workers' Party are to have further meetings with the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, today.
Concern has been expressed that an election process might fail to provide representation to these smaller parties and that the loyalist paramilitaries, whose views are represented by the UDP and PUP, might therefore be excluded from political talks.
A group of smaller parties, including the Communist Party, Democratic Left, the Green Party, (the WP, the New Ireland Group and the Women into Politics Project yesterday proposed that a of proportional representation with a "topping up" system should be adopted in order to be fair to all.
They also suggested that a 40 per cent gender quota should be adopted temporarily in order to redress the present imbalance in the representation of women. The North has no women MPs and MEPs, while only 11 per cent of councillors are women, they pointed out.
In a joint press conference, the small groups asserted that PRSTV (proportional representation with single transferable vote) would favour the bigger parties and make it very difficult for parties with less than 10 per cent support to gain representation. A "topping up PRSTV" process based on a threshold of 1 per cent would be fair to everyone, they suggested.