Belfast Lord Mayor Martin Morgan is today facing a close vote over his decision to boycott events involving a British government minister.
The SDLP mayor could be heading towards a defeat at tonight's city council meeting over a motion from hard-line Unionists condemning his plans to snub events involving Northern Ireland Office minister Mr John Spellar.
Mr Morgan announced plans last month to boycott events attended by Mr Spellar because of the army's refusal to dismiss two Scots Guards convicted of murdering Belfast teenager Peter McBride in 1992.
The SDLP mayor and his Derry counterpart, Mr Shaun Gallagher, have singled out Mr Spellar because he sat on an Army Board which retained guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright.
Their campaign could be undermined tonight if city councillors in Belfast back a Democratic Unionist Party motion condemning Mr Morgan.
The Alliance Party, which holds the balance of power on the city council, announced yesterday that its three councillors would vote against Mr Morgan.
After the DUP tabled its motion last week, Mr Morgan said he understood unionist concerns about his protest but said he was standing by his decision because it was a question of human rights.
If he loses tonight's vote, the SDLP mayor will not be penalised but unionists believe it will be an embarrassing defeat for the first citizen who vowed to work in partnership with all the parties in City Hall when he was elected to the post.
Mr McBride was shot in the back after he was stopped by an Army patrol in the New Lodge area of north Belfast in 1992. Guardsmen Fisher and Wright said they believed at the time he was carrying a bomb but no device was found.
The pair were jailed in 1995 for life for his murder but were released three years later and were allowed to rejoin their regiment.
Two months ago the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled that the soldiers should not have been allowed back but stopped short of ordering the Army to dismiss them.
PA