THE Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has threatened to take a court case to have the results of the local government election in Northern Ireland declared null and void.
Mr Ken Maginnis, MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone, claimed that the British government had given Sinn Fein "a quarter of a million pounds" worth of free publicity on polling day.
He was referring yesterday to the television and radio publicity given to Mr Martin McGuinness and his team of Sinn Fein negotiators who met Northern Ireland Office officials at Stormont on Wednesday - polling day - and to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam's, decision to visit nationalist residents' groups the same day.
A statement from UUP headquarters complained that interviews on BBC and UTV with Mr Breandan MacCionnaith, a member of the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition and candidate in the election, was in breach of electoral and broadcasting law.
The UUP said that the interview with Mr Mac Cionnaith was illegal under electoral law, and it was now considering legal action. Mr Ken Maginnis also complained that other parties were disadvantaged by the recent publicity given to Sinn Fein.
"The whole integrity of the electoral process was infringed by the Northern Ireland Office which, totally insensitively, gave Sinn Fein the sort of publicity that a quarter of a million pounds would not have paid for," he said.
"I believe that if there has been a deliberate infringement of the integrity of the electoral system then there may be grounds for asking that the whole process be declared null and void," Mr Maginnis added.
Meanwhile, Mr Mark Durkan, SDLP candidate in Derry, accused Sinn Fein of misusing proxy and postal votes. The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, denied the charges and said the SDLP should produce the evidence. "They should either put up or shut up," he added.
