Two candidates are to contest the Ulster Unionist Party leadership election next month.
Lagan Valley Assembly member Basil McCrea and his Fermanagh colleague Tom Elliott will stand to replace Sir Reg Empey as party leader at a special meeting to be held in Belfast on September 22nd.
Nominations closed at 5pm today and there was no surprise nomination from a third candidate, despite rumours to the contrary when Sir Reg announced earlier this month he was quitting.
Unionist unity involving closer co-operation with Peter Robinson's DUP is likely to emerge as a key election issue between the two declared candidates.
Mr Elliott, who helped engineer an agreed single unionist candidate in the Fermanagh South Tyrone constituency in May's Westminster election, is widely believed to be in favour of closer links with the DUP.
Mr McCrea believes that such so-called "traditional unionism" has failed his party and partly explains why up to 100,000 unionist supporters have tended not to vote in recent polls.
The candidates are also likely to differ over links to the loyalist marching orders. Mr Elliott is a significant Orange figure in Fermanagh, while Mr McCrea is not a member of any of the loyal orders.
Sir Reg decided to vacate the leadership after he failed to unseat the DUP MP for South Antrim, the Rev William McCrea, at the last Westminster election. Sir Reg, who had changed constituencies from East Belfast, said he would stand aside this autumn to allow a new leadership to establish itself well in advance of next May's Assembly elections.
He was a key figure in the decision to contest the last election on a joint platform with the British Conservatives. None of its candidates was successful and the sole previous Ulster Unionist MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, quit the party in opposition to the move. She retained her seat as an Independent with an increased majority.
The UUP and the Tories are not now to contest the next election under the much criticised banner of the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force (Ucunf).
The leadership election will be held on a one member one vote system.