The Northern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP) is a small political party operating in Northern Ireland. The NIUP was formed in January1999 as a splinter party from the UK Unionist Party (UKUP). This split was caused by disagreement between the five UKUP members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Four of the members diagreed with UKUP leader Robert McCartney's policy of resigning from the Assembly should Sinn Féin become part of the power sharing executive. The four other assembly members, Cedric Wilson, Patrick Roche, Norman Boyd and Roger Hutchinson disagreed with McCartney, wanting to remain in the Assembly to challenge unionists in favour of the Belfast Agreement. McCartney disciplined these members in their absence, and in response they left the UKUP and formed the NIUP. The NIUP, led by Wilson, argued that they had the support of the grass-roots membership of the UKUP, but McCartney disputed this.
Subsequently Hutchinson left the NIUP on 30th November 1999, sitting as an independent Unionist for a period before joining the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He then left the DUP and unsuccessfully contested the Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 2003 as an independent Unionist.
In its first electoral test, the party polled very poorly in the 2001 General Election and in the local elections held on the same day, winning no MPs or local councillors. In the Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 2003 the NIUP won no seats at all. At the time of writing, it is not clear what will happen to the party now and the party website is no longer active.
The second elections to the NorthernIreland Assembly, which at the time of the elections had been suspended for just over a year, were held on Thursday, November 26, 2003.
On the unionist side, the Democratic UnionistParty gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller Unionistparties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes.
The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote almost halving, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and NorthernIrelandUnionistParty were all wiped out, and the Progressive UnionistParty and UK UnionistParty had just one seat each.
The Ulster UnionistParty (UUP, sometimes referred to as the Official UnionistParty or OUP or, in a historic sense, simply the UnionistParty) is a moderate unionist political party in NorthernIreland, which formed its government between 1921 and 1972 and was supported by most unionists throughout the Troubles.
Throughout this period the party was affiliated to the National Union of the Conservative Party and Ulster Unionist MPs at the Westminster Parliament were a part of the conservative block.
While the party was considering structural reforms, including the connection with the Order, it was the Order itself that severed the connection after many of its members transferred their allegiance to the Democratic UnionistParty.
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