Ulster Voters Show Disapproval of Pact but Protestants Short of Mandate Goal

Protestant voters rejected an Anglo-Irish agreement aimed at bringing peace to troubled Northern Ireland but failed to give their leaders the overwhelming mandate they had hoped to get, returns in 15 parliamentary elections showed Friday.

Protestants make up 60% of the population in Northern Ireland, which has been torn by religious strife for much of the past two decades.

The two Protestant political parties suffered an embarrassing setback by losing one of the 15 seats they had held in Parliament. The seat was won by a Roman Catholic candidate who favors the accord.

One-Issue Campaign

The province’s Protestant leaders had forced the election, which was held Thursday, by resigning the 15 seats. They then campaigned to win them back on the single issue of the Anglo-Irish accord, which was signed by Britain and the Irish Republic last November. The strategy was to turn out a massive vote against the agreement, then confront British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with the results.

The accord, signed by Thatcher and Ireland’s Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald, gives the Irish Republic a consultative role in Northern Ireland, which is also known as Ulster. Participation by the government in Dublin is intended to increase confidence among Ulster’s moderate Catholics and to undercut support for groups advocating violence, including the outlawed Irish Republican Army and its legal political wing, Sinn Fein.

The British and Irish governments both see the agreement as an important first step in ending the violence that has claimed nearly 2,500 lives over the last 17 years, but Protestants see it as a threat to their dominance and the first move in an Anglo-Irish plot to deliver Ulster into a united, Catholic Ireland.

Campaigning on the slogan “Ulster says no,” Protestant leaders had hoped to return all 15 of their candidates and attract half a million votes, nearly 20% more than in the last general election, in 1983.

Short of Goals

They achieved neither goal, but they promised to continue their campaign against the accord. The combined vote of their 15 candidates totaled just over 418,000, barely 2,000 more than in 1983 and just under half the province’s total electorate.

The Catholic victory came in a rural constituency bordering the Irish Republic. The winner was Seamus Mallon, candidate of the moderate, Catholic-based Social Democratic Labor Party.

“There has been a lot of talk in this province about Ulster saying no,” Mallon told his jubilant supporters. “In this constituency, the fact is Ulster has said yes.”

In addition to Mallon’s victory, there was another heartening sign for the British and Irish governments and other backers of the agreement--a significant decline in support for the Sinn Fein.

Talks Urged

After the election results were made public, British officials involved in Northern Ireland affairs urged Protestants to undertake talks on implementing the accord, which encourages them to share power with parties representing the minority Catholic community.

One of these officials, Nicholas Scott, said: “We were told it was going to be a massive vote, but it turned out to be less than half the electorate. Now that the elections are over, we must look at ways to devolve government.”

Still, Protestant leaders said the vote confirms that a majority in the province are opposed to the agreement, and they promised to continue to campaign against it.

Peter Robinson, one of the victorious Protestant candidates, said: “(Yesterday) the Anglo-Irish agreement died. Today it lies buried under massive votes of ‘no.’ ”

May Return After All

Before the election, Protestant leaders hinted that they would refuse to take their seats in Parliament as a way to protest the accord, but there were indications Friday that they would return to London in the hope of drawing Thatcher into talks aimed at scrapping the accord.

If this strategy fails--Thatcher has said repeatedly that she is committed to the accord--Ulster’s Protestant leaders have said they will undertake a campaign of noncooperation with the British authorities.