An Ulster Unionist who opposed the Belfast Agreement last night failed to secure a nomination to run as a party candidate in the assembly elections.
Ms Arlene Foster, who was regarded as a "soft No", failed by just eight votes to secure a nomination for the Fermanagh-South Tyrone constituency at a meeting in Enniskillen. Ms Foster (27) said after the meeting that she did not believe her opposition to the agreement was a major factor. Two longstanding councillors in Enniskillen, Mr Sam Foster and Mr Bertie Kerr, and a Dungannon councillor, Ms Joan Carson, were selected. Prior to the referendum, Ms Foster said she could not "in conscience" support the agreement, but after the vote she expressed a willingness to unite behind the leadership. Ms Foster said last night she had no intention of leaving the party "I am personally disappointed but it was my first foray into politics. I have never stood before and I was up against established figures. But I'll be back again." A message from headquarters was read at the start of the meeting, stressing the importance of party loyalty.
Mr Ken Maginnis, the Ulster Unionist MP in the constituency, had decided not to run as a candidate for the assembly.
Ms Foster has had a high profile in the UUP in recent years and was the party's election agent for the Forum elections in 1996.
A senior member of the party in Fermanagh said that while opposition to the agreement might have won approval in Belfast, her stance against the party leadership "did not play well in the country".
In South Antrim, Mr John Hunter, a leading anti-agreement Ulster Unionist, was chosen as one of the three party candidates to contest the assembly election. The other two candidates selected, Mr Jim Wilson, general secretary of the UUP, who topped the convention poll, and Mr Duncan Shipley-Dalton, who was third in the poll, support the agreement.