Four anti-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionist Party members who faced expulsion for defying Mr David Trimble's leadership during the Assembly elections resigned from the party yesterday, writes Gerry Moriarty.
After disciplinary hearings against the four were heard at UUP headquarters in Belfast on Wednesday it was expected that they would be expelled. The party's disciplinary committee, however, postponed its decision for a few days.
The four who left the party were: Mr Denis Watson, head of the Orange Order in Armagh, and Mr Boyd Douglas, who won Assembly seats respectively in Upper Bann and East Derry; and Mr Jack Beattie and Mr William Wright, unsuccessful respectively in Strangford and North Antrim. They were suspended from the party for contesting the Assembly elections against UUP instructions.