Anti-Belfast Agreement unionists have accused Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party of "accepting anything in exchange for holding on to political power".
During yesterday's Assembly debate in the run-up to the vote to elect the First and Deputy First Ministers, the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, quoted Mr Trimble from an interview given in May 1998 in which he had demanded a declaration by the IRA that the war was over.
Additionally, unless there was a definite end to punishment attacks, to paramilitary units still being active on the ground and clarification as to what had happened to the so-called "disappeared", even an actual act of decommissioning would be "fraudulent", Dr Paisley quoted Mr Trimble as saying.
While there had been photographs of security installations being dismantled in south Armagh, there had been none of the decommissioned IRA arsenal, the DUP leader added. "Why is that? Surely, if it had been an honest act, Sinn FΘin would be proud of it."
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, tabled an amendment which would have required parties wanting to redesignate their political affiliation to wait for 45 days before this could take place. His motion was defeated. In the debate, Mr Robinson said the instant redesignation sought by the Women's Coalition would obscure the principle of power-sharing.
"Anything seems permissible to save the Belfast Agreement . . . My amendment seeks to increase this threshold in an attempt to take temptation out of the hands of political opportunists", he added.
Describing Mr Trimble as "hanging on to the apron strings of the Women's Coalition", Mr Robinson quoted from an interview given by the UUP leader last weekend, in which he had said that a redesignation by the Women's Coalition would "not be credible".
One of the two Ulster Unionist dissidents, Mr Peter Weir, said that the Women's Coalition's redesignation did not appear to be on the basis of "nationalist" or "unionist" but on the political concepts of "yes [to the Belfast Agreement], no or John Taylor".
He added: "While we do not want to see people pigeon-holed as unionist or nationalist, which only heightens sectarianism, we should not change rules that have been there from day one."
The Alliance leader, Mr David Ford, was also critical of the Women's Coalition. "While we oppose the principle [of designation], which only entrenches sectarianism, there should not be an easy change to designation. No matter how well-intentioned the Women's Coalition is in making this move, it is no solution."
Mr Cedric Wilson, of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party, accused Mr Trimble of "parachuting back into positions of power those deeply linked to terrorism".
The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Bob McCartney, claimed that the Women's Coalition would bring the Assembly into "contempt and ridicule", describing them as "political hermaphrodites" and a "cross-dressing party". He said that the UUP would "virtually accept anything to hold on to power". Mr Trimble's party had been "conned" into believing that decommissioning would now be an ongoing process after the one-off event of last week, Mr McCartney concluded.