Anti-agreement Ulster Unionists scored a victory over their pro-agreement colleagues when they secured the party's nomination last night to contest the South Belfast Westminster seat in the next UK general election.
The sitting anti-agreement UUP MP, the Rev Martin Smyth, defeated the North's Arts Minister, Mr Michael McGimpsey, by 60 to 47.
Mr Smyth is a staunch critic of Mr David Trimble and unsuccessfully challenged him for the party leadership last year. Mr McGimpsey is a close associate of the UUP leader, who will be deeply disappointed.
South Belfast is natural pro-agreement territory as it is the most middle-class constituency in the city. "The feeling is that if the pro-agreement camp don't win here, they won't win anywhere," a UUP source said before the meeting.
The Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, has said it will run against Mr Smyth. The PUP chief spokesman, Mr David Ervine, said South Belfast was "85 per cent pro-agreement" and it was inconceivable that it would continue to be represented by an anti-agreement MP.
But the South Belfast MP said he had seen off the PUP challenge before and would do so again. The SDLP believes it could pick up the seat if the unionist vote is badly fractured.
A former Grand Master of the Orange Order, Mr Smyth has held the seat since 1982 and enjoys a 4,600-strong majority over the SDLP.
After his re-selection he said he was confident of holding the seat at the forthcoming election.
The SDLP believes it could pick up the seat if the unionist vote is badly fractured. At the 1998 Assembly election the UUP secured 23 per cent of the vote, the SDLP 21 per cent, the DUP 13 per cent and the PUP 5 per cent.
The Women's Coalition and Alliance achieved a combined vote of almost 20 per cent.