UUP to decide on fate of anti-agreement members
The Ulster Unionist Party’s officer board is due to meet today to decide if anti-agreement party members Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside can stand in next year’s Assembly elections.
Because the pair are MPs in the British Government, they must seek the board’s permission to also run for election to the Assembly.
Although both are proven vote-winners, their presence in the assembly party could weaken First Minister David Trimble’s hold on this critical pro-agreement power base.
The UUP officer board will also decide a venue and date for the next meeting of the party’s ruling council after the anti-agreement wing this week secured the requisite 60 signatures to call a meeting of the body.
The hardliners have called the meeting in their latest attempt to collapse the Northern Assembly by getting the UUP to refuse to share power with Sinn Fein.
