MORE than 85% of DUP members believe the St Andrews agreement could allow their party to share power with Sinn Fein, as long as progress is made on some outstanding issues.

A consultation process in the party, due to be completed on Wednesday, is expected to produce an approval rating of “nearer 90% than 80%”, according to a DUP source. He based his prediction on four consultative meetings held in Belfast, Ballymena, Newtownstewart and Lurgan, and on a preliminary written response to a consultation document. Members have three more days to respond to the document by post, fax or e-mail.

On Friday the Northern Ireland parties must give a formal response to the St Andrews agreement, which was presented to them last month by the British and Irish governments. The results of the consultation should allow the DUP to agree in principle to power-sharing once its concerns are met. “It is fair to say that there is massive support for the leadership line, far in excess of the popular vote for the Good Friday agreement, which was 72% in the referendum and was considered overwhelming,” the party said.

The issues on which the DUP require progress include the creation of a mechanism by which Sinn Fein can be expelled from the executive if the IRA becomes active. One possibility is an enhanced role for the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC). The DUP is also refusing to share power with Sinn Fein before it declares support for the police.

The DUP will also make its acceptance conditional on a range of less clearly defined issues, including an enhanced financial package, progress on loyal order parades, arrangements to move away from mandatory coalitions in the future and “further fairness and equality measure for the unionist community”.

Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP who attended the Ballymena and Belfast meetings, said: “The question put to members was not ‘are you happy with the St Andrews agreement and do you think we should proceed into an executive government with Sinn Fein?’ We clearly need to get sufficient movement on the matters outstanding to take us to the next step and I don’t think that is certain. Most members recognised that we laid down conditions for Sinn Fein to meet. If they do meet them and it has been verified, then we will abide by the commitment that has been made in the manifesto.”

Bertie Ahern, the taoiseach, underlined the importance of Friday’s deadline at the Fianna Fail ard fheis yesterday. “We need to have agreed the legislation by Friday and then it has to be passed in two weeks,” he said. “This is a tight timeframe for what are complex issues. The parties are up for it, but there are a lot of things that need to be agreed yet. It is serious. We have six days to do it.”

Yesterday Robert McCartney, the leader of the anti-agreement UK Unionist party, claimed to have been asked by DUP members to run candidates as a focus for dissent if an election is held to ratify power-sharing with Sinn Fein. The St Andrews agreement cannot be implemented without either a referendum or an election. McCartney, whose party got 4,794 votes in the last election, said: “I believe there are 21,000 votes, at least, out there from disappointed and despairing Ulster Unionists and DUP people who do not want Sinn Fein in government.”

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