BELFAST (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Britain held out the prospect of a re-run of a key vote to save Northern Ireland's political structures after Protestant hard-liners on Friday defeated David Trimble's bid to return as head of the province's government.(Read photo caption below) Political sources said a repeat vote could see Nobel peace laureate Trimble -- moderate leader of the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party -- reinstalled as the province's First Minister.
Speaking during a break in hastily-convened talks with parties that support the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid conceded Trimble's defeat in a vote earlier in the day was a setback.
Protestant hard-liners dealt a narrow defeat to Trimble's bid to return to the top of the British province's Protestant/Roman Catholic coalition, leaving it rudderless a week after it was boosted by the start of Irish Republican Army disarmament.
Martin McGuinness, a leading member of the Catholic IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, said the result was ``disappointing'' and called on Britain to hold fresh elections to the power-sharing assembly.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble speaks to the media after leaving the Northern Ireland Assembly Chamber in Stormont, Belfast, November 2, 2001. Northern Ireland's peace process, given a boost by IRA disarmament just a week ago, now faces fresh problems after moderate Protestant Trimble failed to become head of the province's government in a crucial election. (Paul McErlane/Reuters)