SDLP targets five key seats in election

The SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan tonight identified five key Northern Ireland Assembly election battlegrounds where a handful of…

The SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan tonight identified five key Northern Ireland Assembly election battlegrounds where a handful of votes could decide if his or the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party win seats.

Mr Durkan, Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble and Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams all launched attacks on the DUP today, accusing them of misleading the electorate.

The five constituencies singled out by Mr Durkan were East Antrim, South Antrim, Lagan Valley, Strangford and West Belfast.

The Foyle Assembly candidate insisted: "Now more than ever the time has come to stop the No men.

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"The SDLP is clear we will not renegotiate the Agreement with the DUP. But the electorate can be clear they can stop things even getting that far.

"Only the pro-Agreement thoroughbreds of the SDLP can stop the DUP gallop on the 26th."

Mr Durkan claimed for 40 years the DUP's leader the Reverend Ian Paisley had adopted the role of "heckler against progress and wrecker-in-chief".

He said: "He may be old but he's still a one word conversationalist - no, no, no."

Meanwhile Mr Trimble and colleagues Mr David McClarty from East Derry and Mr David McNarry in Strangford issued a point-by-point rebuttal of DUP campaign literature.

PA