The Workers' Party president, Mr Tom French, repeated the national executive's call for a Yes vote in the referendums on the Belfast Agreement.
"This agreement provides a fresh opportunity for all the people of the North to build a peaceful and democratic future together," he told the ardfheis.
Delegates were due to debate an emergency motion from the ardchomhairle, but a hotel power cut meant the ardfheis was concluded before it was reached. The motion noted the "limitations" of the agreement, but added that it represented "an opportunity to advance the long-standing and consistent Workers' Party programme of anti-sectarianism, peace, work, democracy and class politics".
Mr French told The Irish Times he had no doubt the motion would have been adopted by the delegates. "The endorsement of the agreement by our national executive followed consultations with our members, North and South," he said.
In his presidential address to delegates, Mr French said the basis for peace and democracy in the North seemed to have been laid at Stormont on Good Friday. There was now a stark choice between democracy and terrorism.
"However, building structures is one thing, making them work is now the challenge that faces us all. The decisions made by both the political parties and the paramilitary organisations, of whatever vintage, are clearly crucial in this regard," he added.
For more than 25 years his party had called for democratic devolved government in the North, he said. "Many unreconstructed unionists yearned for a return to the old days of Stormont. Many nationalists refused to countenance any internal settlement and denounced any proposal for a Northern Ireland assembly as merely a ruse for a return to Stormont. For their own partisan reasons, both unionist and nationalist groupings chose to overlook the key word - democratic - in our proposal," he added.
