Trimble re-election hangs in the balance

With former First Minister and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble requiring every possible vote to be sure of succeeding in his bid to be re-elected as leader of the Assembly, hard line unionist Pauline Armitage has declared that she will not vote for a policy that she said was “destroying the union”.

Speaking on Thursday’s BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback lunchtime discussion programme, Ulster Unionist Assembly Member Pauline Armitage said that she still had grave reservations about the details of the IRA decommissioning process and the direction that the peace process was taking.

Friday, November 2’s, crucial vote for the Assembly’s First Minister post, leader of the Ulster Unionist David Trimble needs to attract the votes of all the UUP MLAs as well as those of the pro-Agreement unionists to be sure of winning back the position of First Minister of the power-sharing executive.

With the fate of the current Assembly hanging by a thread, the pro-Good Friday Agreement Women’s Coalition party is seeking to have their party re-designated as unionist - currently they are defined as "inclusive other". This would give the pro-Agreement unionist camp two further and possibly vital votes.

Ulster Unionists Pauline Armitage and Peter Weir met on Wednesday evening with General de Chastelain the head of the International Commission of Decommissioning. However, while both described the talks as useful, it would appear that they were dissatisfied with the answers given by the General.

Peter Weir, who challenged Sinn Féin’s Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness to provide details of IRA weapons that had been decommissioned, has not yet indicated his position. He said that, while he would not be speaking to IRA-Sinn Féin, many people wanted to know when decommissioning would be completed.

Progressive Unionist Billy Hutchinson has also met with General de Chastelain, and the PUP later declared that they would be suporting Mr Trimble's re-election..

SDLP leader in waiting Mark Durkan, who is standing for the post of Deputy First Minister, called on all Ulster Unionists to back Mr Trimble’s re-election. (SP)