Northern Ireland faces a Balkan-style polarised society if Sinn Féin and the DUP prosper in the general election, former Stormont Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon claimed today.
The former SDLP deputy leader, who is standing down as the MP for Newry and Armagh, claimed voters in Northern Ireland were facing a watershed election.
Former Stormont deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon
He warned that if the parties of Gerry Adams and the Rev Ian Paisley were allowed to strengthen their grip on nationalism and unionism, it could condemn the province to years of division.
Mr Mallon said: "They [the DUP and Sinn Féin] are posturing on the middle ground. They are in a pretend world in the middle ground. They are squatting on what we term the middle ground but it is not lost.
"Unionism is being tempted to think here is the only way you can have power. Here is the only way that you might politically get what you want . . . that is the lines of . . . the sectarianism of the DUP, the flag-wavers at every sectarian bun fight over these past few years.
"On the nationalist side people are being told the only way you will get this thing that has not yet been defined by them (Sinn Féin) in terms of what they call Irish unity, the only way you will get it is to get into our silo, to get into our compound, to subscribe to our Stalinism and then we will see you right," Mr Mallon said.
He said that if Sinn Féin and the DUP were given further electoral advantage, it would take a long time for the middle ground to reclaim its place in politics. He urged people not to sit at home on polling day and to go out and vote for the middle ground.
The former SDLP deputy leader accused republicans of repeatedly failing to live up to expectations in their community about an end to IRA violence since the talks between Mr Gerry Adams and Mr John Hume in 1988.
He said he would wait to see how the IRA responded to Mr Gerry Adams's recent public call for the organisation to recognise that a democratic alternative existed for republicans.
But he added: "You see I am still waiting since 1988. It didn't happen."
PA