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Hard-liners forge leads in N. Ireland election

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BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Hard-line Catholic and Protestant parties have won the bulk of seats decided so far in the election for a new legislative assembly in Northern Ireland, a vote designed to clear the way for creation of a new power-sharing local executive that can pull support from across the sectarian divide.

Results for 72 of 108 assembly seats showed the Democratic Unionist Party, led by Protestant hard-liner Ian Paisley, had captured 25 seats, compared to 24 for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, according to results from Britain's Press Association news agency.

A moderate Catholic party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, had won 10 seats, and the Ulster Unionists, a Protestant party that helped broker the 1998 Good Friday peace accords, had nine, with two smaller parties taking the remaining four seats.

Winners in the remaining 36 seats contested in Wednesday's election were expected to be determined Friday under Northern Ireland's complex system of preferential voting.

The DUP and Sinn Fein also won the most seats in the last assembly election in 2003, but they were unable to reach an agreement on formation of a power-sharing executive, leaving the British government to run Northern Ireland directly from London.

This time around, to put pressure on the two sides, the British and Irish governments have set a March 26 deadline for the DUP, Sinn Fein and the other parties to reach an agreement.

Under the plan, if both sides fail to come together, the 108-seat assembly, based in Belfast's Stormont parliamentary building, would be abandoned, and the region would revert to joint Irish and British control.

Such a result would be seen as a serious setback to the peace process started nearly a decade ago, which has largely ended three decades of sectarian violence.

Heading into the vote, British Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain told CNN that failure would mean "no chance of a settlement for a good long time, maybe years."

"I'm optimistic that we can achieve a working government, but it's a very stark choice for them -- get into power, or shut up shop," Hain said. (Full interview)

Asked by CNN whether he is prepared to work with Protestants who support Northern Ireland's continued union with Britain and shake Paisley's hand, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said he has "no problem" with that.

"I think it is very, very important in terms of representing a community that for a long time was marginalized and excluded. We're about reaching out to the Unionists," Adams told CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley.

But Paisley told CNN the question of power-sharing depends on Sinn Fein keeping its political obligations, charging that Sinn Fein's recent decision to support Northern Ireland's new police service -- a key Protestant demand for power-sharing to be accepted -- had been "qualified."

"You can't pick and choose how far you are prepared to go for peace," Paisley said.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was formed in 1998 as part of the Good Friday peace agreement aimed at ending 30 years of sectarian violence, but was suspended in 2002 when an IRA spying scandal stoked Protestant anger toward Sinn Fein.

Subsequent efforts to heal the rift between the two sides have proved fruitless. However, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government has steered the peace process since 1997, is believed to be keen that both sides should reach an agreement before he leaves office, expected to be later this year.

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