Four more years of the Good Friday Agree-ment will result in a Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister, it was claim-ed last night.
Democratic Unionist MP Iris Robinson told a rally in Moneyreagh that the forthcoming assembly election offered unionists the chance to "control" their own future.
With 56 days left before the May 29 polling date, the Strangford MP declared: "The days of Ulster Unionist dominance are over.
"The days of whoever the Ulster Unionists put up for election being returned are long gone and with your assistance and support the days of the Ulster Unionists failing North-ern Ireland are over.
"We welcome this opportunity but with opportunity comes responsibility.
"The rewards for victory are great but the price of defeat would be greater still.
"Just remember what we said five years ago and recall what the Ulster Unionists said. Unionism can not afford to trust them again.
"Four more years of the Belfast agreement will mean Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister. It will mean Gerry Kelly as policing and justice minister, it will mean rates massively increased and it will mean more all-Ireland government."
Mrs Robinson said this was not mere speculation but reality.
Unionism, she claimed, would be "consigned to terminal decline" unless the DUP prevented the election of David Trimble as First Minister.
She also told an audience, which included Basingstoke MP Andrew Hunter, that Mr Trimble's Ulster Unionists were running scared of the election because they did not want to face voters.
Welcoming Mr Hunter's candidacy for the DUP in Lagan Valley, Mrs Robinson insisted that the party should not take anything for granted.
In a rallying call to activists, the she said: "Make no mistake, this will not be an easy battle."
Ulster Unionists would use every tactic to keep the party at bay, she said.
"No matter how divided they are, no matter how discredited they are, no matter the fact that they have betrayed the people of Northern Ireland they will not roll over.
"We have never been better placed to improve our position in the assembly but we must take nothing for granted. Not a single vote has yet been cast, not a single member returned to power.
"We must not make the mistakes of the Ulster Unionist Party. We must never take a single vote for granted.
"We must work for every one, one by one, on the TV on the radio, in the papers and on the doorstep. It is a campaign we must fight on all fronts."
