The Ulster Unionist Party faces fresh divisions over the next few weeks as its pro- and anti-agreement wings battle for the Westminster candidacy in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
The sitting MP, Mr Ken Maginnis, yesterday announced that he would not be seeking re-election. Mr Maginnis (62) said health was not the prime reason for his decision. While he wanted to devote time to other pursuits, he would remain active in politics. The UUP constituency association will meet to pick its candidate on January 29th.
The nomination is expected to be hotly contested, with Mr Maginnis's election agent, Mr James Cooper, and an Enniskillen solicitor, Ms Arlene Foster, likely to be the leading candidates.
Mr Cooper (50), who is also a solicitor and works in the same office as Ms Foster, is firmly on the UUP's pro-agreement wing and is understood to be the favoured candidate of the party leader, Mr David Trimble.
He said he would announce within days if he was seeking the nomination. "I have been approached by a number of people to put my hat into the ring and I am very actively considering that and will make my intentions clear at the beginning of next week," he said.
Ms Foster (30) had been tipped to become the party's first female MP but has fallen out of favour with the leadership because of her staunch opposition to the Belfast Agreement. An honorary secretary in the UUP, she said last night she would consult family and friends over the weekend. However, sources close to her were confident she would seek the nomination.
The UUP leadership will have no say in who is selected. An anti-agreement candidate, Mr David Burnside, secured the nomination for the South Antrim by-election last year. Another anti-agreement activist, Mr Peter Weir, was selected as the party's candidate in North Down at the next Westminster election.
There is believed to be a proagreement majority in the UUP in Fermanagh-South Tyrone. Whoever secures the nomination is not guaranteed to win the seat, however. Mr Maginnis, who has held the seat for 18 years, benefited from a clear run for the unionist vote.
However, the DUP is likely to contest the next election, which could deliver the seat to a nationalist, with Sinn Fein the most likely front-runner.
At the 1998 Assembly elections, Sinn Fein won 27 per cent of the vote; the UUP 25 per cent; and the SDLP 22 per cent. Sinn Fein's candidate will be Ms Michelle Gildernew.
She said nationalists would "shed no tears" at Mr Maginnis's departure and her party would secure the seat. Mr Maginnis acknowledged the next election would be close but believed his party would win.
"The UUP has played a constructive role in Northern Ireland, and the electorate appreciates that. We have tackled problems head on and looked to the future rather than resting on the prejudices of the past," he said.
The low point in his political career had been the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, but the UUP had managed to "claw its way back from that to a situation where people now have an opportunity to move forward to heal old divisions, to be constructive in their politics".
Mr Maginnis, who is not a member of the Assembly, said he was considering reinvolvement in local government and would continue to work in the UUP at party level.