The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, has described his winning margin in the leadership contest as a "comfortable majority". Mr Trimble defeated the Rev Martin Smyth by 457 votes to 348, or 56.77 per cent to 43.23 per cent.
Speaking after the Ulster Unionist Council annual meeting on Saturday, Mr Trimble said the UUP was "the most democratic party in the British Isles", but the challenge to his leadership had not succeeded.
He said he did not think he was "shackled" by the passing of a motion put forward by Mr David Burnside at a subsequent special meeting of the UUC. The motion linked the UUP's participation in an executive with the retention of the RUC name.
An amendment to Mr Burnside's motion put forward by Mr Trimble, instructing the party's Westminster MPs to fight "vigorously" against the name change, was defeated by 384 votes to 338. "I immediately proposed that we make the main motion unanimous and it was passed on acclamation," said Mr Trimble.
He said the fact Mr Smyth had secured 348 votes to his 457 from delegates was not surprising. "When you think about it, we are two years into the Belfast Agreement - two years where there has been no decommissioning, two years when we haven't had clearly established peace on the ground."
Mr Trimble said when he was selected as the UUP candidate for Upper Bann a decade ago it was on 55 per cent of the vote in the third count. "I'm quite comfortable living on that sort of margin," he said and advised people waiting for his resignation "not to hold their breath".
According to Mr Trimble, the issue of the RUC name was always going to return as a pivotal topic in the process as it represented a "constant gnawing reminder" to grassroots unionists that their interests were being ignored.
"I think the message to government on this is that they are trying the patience of the ordinary decent folk of Ulster too far and too hard and they need to stop and think," he said.
He defended his unsuccessful amendment as an attempt to approach the matter more "diplomatically" with the British government. "The difference between the amendment and the main motion was between something that was a little bit in your face and something that was coming round in a more subtle manner."
Mr Trimble stressed that the May 22nd deadline in the Belfast Agreement for the completion of the decommissioning of paramilitary arms was "absolutely critical". He added: "I think if we find come May 22nd that we have not made significant progress then there is going to be a serious credibility problem with regard to the agreement."
He claimed republicans had disengaged from the process. "We need to try to get things moving quickly. We don't want to get into the republican agenda of waiting for a year or 18 months and then renegotiating the agreement.
"There has to be concerted pressure by the government, by the Irish Government and other parties, and indeed by society as a whole to compel republicans to come back to the table and engage seriously rather than to run away from the process."
Commenting on the elections for party officer positions at the annual meeting, which resulted in the return of 10 pro-agreement candidates and four anti-agreement candidates, Mr Trimble said the "major push" by the anti-agreement wing of the party had not succeeded.