Unionists opposed to the Belfast Agreement have predicted that a majority of unionists will reject the document, and that it will not be overwhelmingly endorsed at the polls by the northern electorate as a whole.
The United Unionist Campaign against the agreement was officially launched yesterday with the slogan "It's Right to Say No". The group, which includes the DUP, the UK Unionists, and dissident Ulster Unionist MPs, claimed that it represents mainstream unionism.
Speaking at the launch, , the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said he had no doubts that a majority of unionists rejected the "all-Ireland deal". Unionists instinctively knew they could not vote for something which put Sinn Fein into government, he said.
They also knew the agreement was bad for the union, would destroy the RUC, and required no decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. "Northern Ireland's days within the union are numbered if this agreement is passed," he said.
The most central feature of the agreement was the constitutional issue, he said. "It sets up moving developments towards all-Ireland integration."
Mr Robinson said that a No vote of anything higher than 26 per cent showed that a majority of unionists were opposed to the Agreement.
The UK Unionist leader, Mr Bob McCartney, predicted that the Yes campaign would not achieve the 70 per cent support Mr David Trimble had said was needed. Even if the agreement was passed, the unionist campaign against it would continue in the new assembly. He expressed confidence that a large number of anti-agreement candidates would be successful in the elections next month.
Mr McCartney insisted the united unionists were not against peace but said the agreement would not end violence. Bombings and shootings had not halted since the deal was reached, he said.
He claimed the British government was more interested in "buying off the IRA" than in democracy, and wanted "to protect the City of London as its primary political objective, and for that purpose it is quite happy to sacrifice the constitutional rights of the peaceful majority of citizens in Northern Ireland."
He challenged the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to allow the electorate to vote on an alternative to the agreement, such as the devolution arrangements for Scotland and Wales.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, was absent from the launch as he is in the United States on church business.
The two dissident UUP MPs, Mr Willie Ross and Mr Willie Thompson, who shared the platform, pledged to do their utmost to oppose the agreement. They said they could not understand how Mr Trimble, and three other UUP MPs, were backing the agreement and hoped he would see the error of his ways.
Mr Thompson, who has been criticised by members of his constituency association in West Tyrone, said he would not be changing his mind. "As time goes on, more and more people are coming over to my way of thinking," he said.