The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, has pledged his determination to remain party leader despite the UUP's poor results in the Westminster election.
As he anxiously awaited the results of the local government elections, which should be known by tomorrow, Mr Trimble called on party members and activists to "hold their nerve".
In the local government elections, almost 1,000 candidates stood for 582 seats on 26 councils in the North. The UUP is currently the largest party at council level, but if the trend set by the Westminster election holds up - although possibly modified by the PR system - the party is again set to face losses at the hands of the DUP, as is the SDLP at the hands of Sinn Fein.
Both the UUP and the SDLP may, however, have benefited from the fact that both elections were held on the same day, leading to a bigger than usual turnout in the council election.
Mr Trimble's future may be decided at the Ulster Unionist Council's annual general meeting on June 23rd. If, after losing three of its nine MPs, the UUP loses around 20 to 30 of its 185 council seats, senior party sources believe there could be a leadership challenge.
The UUP leader yesterday insisted that he would be urging council members to back him on June 23rd, saying he was not scared of a challenge. "As always, my position is up for reelection. I will be offering myself again for that position, and if anyone else from within the party wishes to challenge me, so be it. That is the democratic wish and mandate of the party", he told the BBC's On The Record programme.
The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, who retained his position in the British government reshuffle, said that lessons had to be learned from the election results and efforts redoubled to resolve the outstanding issues surrounding the peace process.
Expressing his confidence in Mr Trimble ahead of all-party talks next week, he added: "He still speaks with considerable authority because he leads the biggest party in terms of votes, in terms of MPs, and I will listen very carefully to what David Trimble says, as I will to all of the other parties."
The SDLP still appeared to be in shock after its disappointing election showing, which the party leader, Mr John Hume, described as a "blip". Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Hume said: "We had a disappointing result which we did not expect, given that it was our strategy that led to the Good Friday agreement. We will obviously carry out a detailed, intense review into what went wrong."
Asked if he was considering standing down as SDLP leader, Mr Hume said he was totally committed to the party and his role in it.
The Sinn Fein Mid-Ulster MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, called on all parties, including the DUP, to work together to resolve all outstanding issues.