A former Ulster Unionist Assembly member is to run as a Stormont candidate for Robert McCartney's UK Unionist Party.
Ms Pauline Armitage, who stood down from the Ulster Unionists in June, is to hand in her nomination papers for east Derry.
She captured one of the last two seats in the constituency in the 1998 Assembly election, receiving 3,315 votes.But she was suspended in November 2001 after opposing Mr David Trimble's bid to be re-elected as Deputy First Minister.
Former North Down Assembly member Mr Peter Weir was expelled for the same offence and has since joined the Democratic Unionists.
Earlier this year, Ms Armitage expressed her admiration for UK Unionist leader Robert McCartney but said she was still considering where her future lay. "I do believe Bob McCartney is a man who tells the truth, and I like that," she said in June.
Ms Armitage will be one of seven UK Unionist candidates. The party won five seats in the 1998 Assembly Election in North Down, Strangford, East Antrim, South Antrim and Lagan Valley.
However in January 1999 the UK Unionists suffered a split, with Mr Cedric Wilson leading colleagues Patrick Roche, Norman Boyd and Roger Hutchinson out ofthe party to form the Northern Ireland Unionist Party.