A dissident Ulster Unionist MLA has given her backing to a DUP motion calling for the exclusion of Sinn FΘin from the Executive, enabling the motion to be voted on as early as next week.
The Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party had been at odds last week when both failed to back a motion by the other calling for Sinn FΘin's exclusion, leading to both motions being short of the necessary 30 signatures to go forward for debate in the Assembly.
Having gained the 30th signature - that of the UUP MLA, Ms Pauline Armitage - the DUP motion now qualifies to go in front of the Assembly's business office today. The office will decide on a date for it to be put it on the Order Paper, possibly as early as next Monday.
The UUP motion is currently two signatures short for it to go forward. It was proposed by the party leader, Mr David Trimble, following the latest suspension and reinstatement of the North's power-sharing institutions 10 days ago and is intended to put renewed pressure on republicans to start decommissioning. In the event of the UUP motion failing - which is almost inevitable - Mr Trimble announced that the UUP's three ministers would withdraw from their posts.
It was unclear yesterday whether the three UUP ministers would also withdraw if the DUP motion - rather than their own - failed to get the backing of the Assembly, given that both motions are based on the same premise of excluding Sinn FΘin. A UUP spokesman refused to comment.
The leader of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party, a small anti-Belfast Agreement party, Mr Cedric Wilson, who is also backing the DUP motion, yesterday welcomed that the motion had now gained the 30th signature.
In other business, the Assembly observed a minute's silence in honour of Mr Martin O'Hagan, the Sunday World journalist gunned down by loyalists.