The Ulster Unionist Party is today preparing for another wrangle between pro and anti-Belfast Agreement factions of the party over who will defend the Fermanagh/South Tyrone seat at the next British general election.
Around 420 UUP constituency association members in Enniskillen will choose tonight who will replace their MP, Mr Ken Maginnis as the party's candidate at the next General Election.
The contest will be a straight fight between the pro and anti-Good Friday Agreement wings of the party.
Supporters of the Agreement and UUP leader, Mr David Trimble will be pinning their hopes on Mr James Cooper, a lawyer and Mr Maginnis's election agent.
However, he faces a strong challenge from one of the Agreement's harshest critics, Ms Arlene Foster, who not only works in the same legal practise but is a close ally of dissident MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson.
Mr Cooper was confident today the constituency association would continue to endorse Mr Trimble's policies.
"The real issue tonight is whether delegates in Fermanagh and South Tyrone will continue to back David Trimble as they have consistently done throughout this process," he said.
"I have no reason to believe they will abandon that. They have been very firm about backing David Trimble's realistic proposals to make the Agreement work in unionists' favour.
Ms Foster was also hopeful she could win the nomination, noting there was a lot of "dissatisfaction" about the way the Agreement was being implemented.
"I think there is no doubt that there is a lot of frustration out there that republicans seem to have their hands out all the time and unionists are not gaining what they were meant to gain under the Agreement,'' she said.
Whoever wins tonight's contest will have to defend Ken Maginnis's 13,688 majority at the last Westminster Election.
The winner could also face the prospect of the first challenge from another unionist in the constituency since 1979, with the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists threatening to stand.
However, DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson hinted at the weekend the party's candidate, Mr Maurice Morrow might withdraw if the UUP were to field an opponent of the Agreement.
The East Belfast MP told his party's youth wing at the weekend Mr Morrow had signalled "if the UUP reject the 'Trimbleite' hopeful, Mr Cooper, that he will sit down with the anti-Agreement candidate and seek to resolve the issue in the interests of unionists who are opposed to the Belfast Agreement." Mr Cooper responded today that UUP members in Fermanagh and South Tyrone would resent Mr Robinson's intervention.
"They will choose their own candidate - not someone in the image of Maurice Morrow or Peter Robinson," he retorted.
A split unionist vote would boost nationalist hopes of the constituency returning to them for the first time since Ken Maginniss unseated Sinn Fein MP, Owen Carron in 1983.
Sinn Fein MLA Ms Michelle Gildernew will be contesting the seat, with the nationalist SDLP also likely to stand.
PA