The DUP has said the Northern Secretary should have the courage to call fresh Assembly elections if Mr David Trimble is not re-elected as First Minister today. Mr Trimble's chances dwindled yesterday when a member of his Assembly team, Ms Pauline Armitage, said she would not be voting for him. The support of another UUP member, Mr Peter Weir, is unlikely.
If Mr Trimble is unsuccessful, Dr John Reid must choose whether to suspend the Assembly or call elections. There was speculation last night that he might opt for suspension, with the British government then introducing legislative changes in the House of Commons to allow for the First Minister to be elected on 40 per cent of the unionist vote in the Assembly provided that 60 per cent of the entire chamber was in favour.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said any rewriting of the rules would cause a further loss of credibility for the Belfast Agreement. "It would be cheating. John Reid should have the courage to call an election. Instead, the government are running away from the people.
"They are running because they know that what the DUP has been saying - that a majority of unionists are opposed to the Agreement - is true."
Ms Armitage said that while she didn't have a problem with Mr Trimble personally, she opposed his policy of returning to government with Sinn FΘin.
Mr Weir could not be contacted last night, but sources close to him said they would be "very surprised" if he voted for Mr Trimble.
A British government source said no action had been decided on if Mr Trimble failed. "The options are grim," he said. "Suspension would be seen as an act of bad faith after the IRA's historic move on decommissioning. Elections are a very real possibility, but we haven't committed ourselves."
The British government is concerned that both the DUP and Sinn FΘin would perform well in elections and is understood to be keen to avoid the possibility of the Assembly becoming unworkable if those parties emerged as the two largest and thus eligible to hold the positions of First and Deputy First Minister.
Sinn FΘin's Mr Martin McGuinness said the British government must call elections if a First Minister was not re-elected today. The Alliance leader, Mr David Ford, said it would be "bizarre" if Mr Trimble was supported by 70 per cent of Assembly members yet failed to be elected.
The DUP threatened legal action to block the Women's Coalition's attempt to redesignate its two Assembly members as one nationalist and one unionist to help re-elect Mr Trimble.
Mr Robinson accused Prof Monica McWilliams and Ms Jane Morrice of "seeking to create an artificial majority of unionists behind Trimble". He said: "We believe such a move would be illegal. The agreement, the Northern Ireland Act and the standing orders were not framed to facilitate two drag-queen unionists to upset the fundamental safeguard built into the system to protect each section of the community. Having taken legal advice, we are satisfied the redesignation by the Women's Coalition as unionists would be an abuse which would be legally actionable."
However, Prof McWilliams said Mr Robinson had got his facts wrong. "There is nothing in the Assembly rules to say we cannot redesignate within seven days to the communities we would be perceived as coming from. Contexts change, and if you look at September 11th and IRA decommissioning, that is obvious. As for the accusation that we are political drag-queens, that is rich from a party which has been quite content to rotate ministers in the Executive and happy to accept MLAs from other parties under their whip."