The nationalist-unionist battle to top the poll in the European election in Northern Ireland was won for the fifth time in succession by the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley. He narrowly saw off the challenge from the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, who was 2,000 votes behind him.
While the Sinn Fein candidate, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, polled strongly, Mr Jim Nicholson, with a creditable return of almost 120,000 votes, held on to the third seat for the Ulster Unionist Party.
Dr Paisley, who won 192,762 votes, immediately portrayed the result as a victory for the anti-Belfast Agreement unionist camp. It meant that 60 per cent of unionists now opposed the Good Friday accord, he said.
Mr Hume, who received 190,731 votes, focused on the fact that 68.5 per cent of the overall electorate in Northern Ireland voted for pro-agreement parties. This compares with the 71 per cent who endorsed the agreement in last year's referendum.
Mr Nicholson's success in taking the third seat and coming third in the first-preference poll, but only 2,000 votes ahead of Mr McLaughlin, will provide comfort for the UUP leader and First Minister, Mr David Trimble. But it took transfers from Dr Paisley to elect him.
Mr McLaughlin, with 117,643 votes, maintained the high 17 per cent rating that Sinn Fein achieved in last year's Assembly election.
Overall, the four unionist candidates - Dr Paisley, Mr Nicholson, Mr David Ervine (PUP) and Mr Robert McCartney (UK Unionist Party - won 52.3 per cent of the vote, while the nationalist candidates - Mr Hume and Mr McLaughlin - won 45.4 per cent.
Of that 52.3 per cent, 31.4 per cent voted for the two anti-agreement candidates (Paisley and McCartney) while 20.9 per cent voted for pro-agreement unionists (Nicholson and Ervine).
The Alliance leader, Mr Sean Neeson, polled a disappointing 14,391 votes which, at 2.1 per cent, was almost half the party's vote of 4 per cent in the last European election. Mr James Anderson of the Natural Law Party won 998 votes. When the result was announced in Belfast yesterday evening Dr Paisley's supporters took up a chant of "Number 1, Number 1, Number 1" and "Five In a Row, Five In a Row". The DUP leader said the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, must heed the result which, he argued, meant that a majority of unionists now opposed the agreement.
Therefore, he contended, this meant Mr Blair could not argue that there was cross-community endorsement of the agreement.
"There is a majority of unionist people who will not bow, nor bend, nor budge in their attitude to this agreement," Dr Paisley declared.
It was now time to have a review of the agreement. Mr Blair, if he doubted the result, should call another referendum.
Mr Hume said his vote was an endorsement of the strong pro-Europe platform on which he fought the election. But if others wanted to interpret the election as a re-run of the referendum, it should be pointed out that the overall result was pro-agreement. He added that the vote for him as SDLP leader was historic because it was the largest vote ever won by the party.
"I am very pleased that it is very clear that the 70 per cent of the people who voted in this election, a majority of people in Northern Ireland, voted for candidates from parties who stand four square behind the Good Friday agreement," said Mr Hume to applause from his supporters.
"It is the duty of those who are true democrats to implement the will of the vast majority of the people," he added.
There was some expectation in the anti-agreement camp that because of publicity surrounding an extra-marital affair and internal party divisions, particularly the refusal of the UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, to endorse Mr Nicholson, that he could lose his seat.
Such a result would have almost inevitably led to an internal heave against Mr Trimble. But Mr Nicholson's vote of 119,507 should have steadied the First Minister's position within his party as he faces into a difficult period of negotiations aimed at breaking the deadlock over decommissioning and the formation of an executive.
Mr Nicholson said the result was good for the party and much better than had been predicted. The future of Northern Ireland would be decided within the Assembly and yesterday's vote for Dr Paisley would have no relevance to that process.
He conceded that some people within the UUP conspired against him. "Yes, there were elements within the party, probably some of whom worked against me," he said. "In actual fact, it's probably true to say there were elements within my party who wanted me to do much worse than I actually did, maybe even wanted me to lose. But I confounded them all and beat them," he told UTV.
In a reference to Mr McCartney and Mr Ervine running in the election, Mr Trimble said Mr Nicholson would have fared better if it hadn't been for the unionist "vote splitters". While Dr Paisley could depict the result as a vote for the No camp, he was confident that in another referendum on the agreement that the pro-agreement unionist side would win.
Mr McLaughlin more than doubled Sinn Fein's vote from the last European election. In terms of the political negotiations ahead, he said that Mr Blair, due in Northern Ireland today, could take heart from Sinn Fein's vote. He also suggested that Mr Blair should exert pressure on Mr Trimble to allow the formation of an executive.
"We doubled our representation in the South and doubled our vote in the North. We are saying to Tony Blair, we are a positive influence, we are ready to do business. Apply the pressure where it is required, to those who are hesitant, to those who are fearful, to those who are resisting the process of change." Asked whether Sinn Fein's successes could allow the IRA to make some gesture on arms, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, repeated that Sinn Fein had signed up to the agreement and that it should be implemented "in its letter and its spirit".
The UUP security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, last night strongly condemned his party colleague Mr John Taylor for having failed to endorse the candidacy of Mr Jim Micholson MEP. In response to a question from Mr Vincent Browne, on the latter's RTE radio programme, as to whether he believed Mr Taylor was seeking to usurp Mr Trimble and become party leader himself, Mr Maginnis said:: "I can't find any other explanation for his behaviour".
