World media watch Adams vote

HIS participation in the eventual talks may still be in doubt but the world's press descended on a school in West Belfast yesterday morning to see the Sinn Fein president cast his vote.

At least 13 television camera crews and some 70 journalists gathered outside the gates of the Holy Child primary school in Andersonstown to witness Mr Gerry Adams's arrival at 11.30 a.m.

Once he had entered the gate, the handful of other voters who braved the early rain had to watch from the outside as a media clot blocked the only entrance to the polling station for 15 minutes.

Swallowed up again and invisible in the crowd as he emerged, the Sinn Fein leader paused to blame the British for lowering expectations of peace and to say that the ball was back in Mr John Major's court.

He predicted that Sinn Fein would get its vote out, in spite of the weather and in spite of "you all blocking the gate".

Then he moved away slowly with the scrum shuffling up the footpath around him and an abandoned photographer's step ladder blocking the foot path in the middle of it all.

At another school, on the Falls Road, a smattering of the media turned up at various times during the day to see if predicted friction between locals and voters from the Shankill would materialise.

A reorganisation of constituencies required several hundred voters from the lower Shankill to vote at St Congall's primary school on the Falls, the route taken by many of them requiring them to pass under a giant mural of the Virgin Mary.

Most were ferried across in cars and minibuses. Some displayed Ulster flags, in opposition to the tricolours of the polling station's environs, but the day appeared to pass without incident.

Sinn Fein canvassers outside the school were dismissive of the claims and of the bad weather. "Every day's a good day in Ireland - get the Brits out", said one of the young activists.

Sinn Fein in its turn complained about alleged intimidation by the RUC in North Belfast. A party candidate, Mr Gerry Kelly, claimed that voters were being searched and in some cases photographed on the way into Holy Cross polling station.

Others who were unhappy about polling arrangements were a group called Rights Now, whose members protested in Belfast, Coleraine and Newry over what they claimed was the inaccessibility of many stations.

The treasurer of the group, Ms Mary Mulholland, is herself a candidate in the election, for the Women's Coalition.

A wheelchair user, she complained that she had needed the assistance of others to cast her own vote, and claimed that over 200,000 voters experienced difficulty in doing likewise.