N. IRELAND: 71 PERCENT VOTE YES IN PEACE REFERENDUM

(23 May 1998) English/Nat Northern Ireland gave its endorsement to the Stormont peace agreement, as the results of Friday's referendum were announced on Saturday. More than 71 per cent voted "Yes", opening the way for the easy ratification of the agreement reached on April 10 by the British and Irish governments and with eight political parties. The vote cleared the way for Northern Ireland to hold a June 25 election for a new Belfast Assembly, from which a multi-party administration is to be drawn. There were jubilant scenes at the King's Hall in Belfast when the referendum result was declared. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I hereby give notice that the percentage votes given in the referendum was as follows. Yes - 71.12 percent. (cheering) Thank you, thank you...The percentage for the No was 28.88 percent." SUPER CAPTION: Pat Bradley, Chief electoral officer The result could open the way for a new era of peace after 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The high turnout and large majority gave the agreement the endorsement the "Yes" campaign wanted. But the "No" campaign, led by Reverend Ian Paisley, still managed to divide the Unionist vote - enough for him to claim a moral victory. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I also heard what you were all saying, I was busily preparing for tomorrow for I work on the Sabbath day. And I was hearing all that you are spewing out of your mouths, that we'll never do it, that Paisley was wrong, McCartney was wrong, Peter Robinson, everybody was wrong, my friend Billy Thompson was wrong..we were right." Q: Where do you go from here? "To take the majority into the assembly." SUPER CAPTION: Rev. Ian Paisley, Democratic Unionist Party Paisley's "No" campaign made much of emotive issues for Protestant voters. He highlighted the likelihood of involvement of the I-R-A-allied Sinn Fein party in the new government, and early paroles for more than 200 imprisoned Irish Republican Army members. But Sinn Fein's leader, Gerry Adams said the vote showed the people of Northern Ireland had overwhelmingly voted for change - which should start right away. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Well I think the first thing is to get the mechanisms for change which have been identified in the Good Friday agreement and the whole list of changes which have been itemised in a very clear way. To get those in place and get those moving urgently to deliver the type of change - that doesn't need to wait for any assembly or for an assembly election that has been identified and the people have endorsed that." SUPER CAPTION: Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein leader The biggest hurdle has now been cleared - but the peace agreement could still be held up. Key decisions in the new 108-seat legislative Assembly will require support from a majority of both Protestant and Catholic representatives. The anti-agreement Protestants would hope to win enough seats to gridlock progress. Northern Ireland's 1.6 (m) million population is about 55 per cent Pro-British Protestant and 42 percent Irish Catholic. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...