THE SDLP has rebuffed renewed calls for an electoral pact, which Sinn Fein claims could result in the two parties winning eight Westminster seats. The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, described the appeal as "very strange".
The Sinn Fein claims that nationalists could double their current number of seats, all currently held by the SDLP, coincides with a new statistical report based on the 1991 census figures which shows Catholic majorities in seven of the North's 18 constituencies.
There is a noticeable geographic feature of the Catholic/Protestant divide which Sinn Fein seems anxious to exploit. There are Catholic majorities generally in the west and south of Northern Ireland and Protestant majorities in the east.
In Belfast, Catholics are in the majority in West Belfast, with Protestant majorities in the constituencies of East, South and North Belfast.
While all Catholics and Protestants do not respectively vote for nationalist and unionist parties, it is generally accepted that the majority do so.
The constituencies where there are Catholic majorities, with one exception, coincide with those Sinn Fein contends could yield nationalist seats in the forthcoming Westminster election: Foyle, West Tyrone, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Mid Ulster, Newry and Armagh, South Down and West Belfast.
The exception is North Belfast, which Sinn Fein's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, argues could also be won by an SDLP or Sinn Fein candidate in the event of the two parties forging an electoral pact.
But North Belfast, based on the 1991 figures, has a Catholic population of only 36.6 per cent. In the event of a unionist pact, the seat would be likely to remain in unionist hands.
It should also be noted that these constituency figures contained in the "Monitor for New Parliamentary Constituencies in Northern Ireland" relate to the total number of people in each constituency, not just those of voting age.
Sinn Fein, however, conscious of unionist differences in the constituency, believes that a pact "would maximise the potential to win North Belfast".
The latest call for a nationalist electoral arrangement was voiced by Mr McLaughlin, who said a pact would "maximise the strategic use" of nationalist voting power.
"It would send a message to the unionist leadership after their disgraceful antics at Drumcree. It would send a clear message to the next British government. It would enhance the demand for an inclusive, credible and effective peace process, said Mr Mclaughlin.
"The election of seven or eight non unionist MPs and the consequent reduction in unionist representation would transform the political landscape here," Mr McLaughlin argued in an article in yesterday's Irish News.
However, as far as the SDLP is concerned, the Sinn Fein argument is totally academic in the absence of an IRA ceasefire. The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, rejected Mr McLaughlin's call as "very strange".
"I said very clearly that we could not enter into discussions with Sinn Fein about an electoral pact as long as the IRA campaign continued," he said. "The discussions could only, take place if there was a ceasefire".
Mr Denis Haughey, the SDLP's representative in Mid Ulster, which is held by nationalist bete noire Rev William McCrea of the DUP, also firmly rejected the overtures from Sinn Fein, although acknowledging that the climate could dramatically change in the event of an IRA ceasefire.
"We are not prepared to be associated with people who refuse to accept the right of the people of Ireland to determine their own affairs, and who insist that a tiny minority has the right to wage war against the will of the vast majority," he added.
Meanwhile, a plenary meeting of the multi party talks at Stormont yesterday under the chairmanship of former US senator Mr George Mitchell broke up after an hour without any movement on decommissioning. There will be a further plenary next Wednesday.
