Unionist Party of Northern Ireland

The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) was officially launched in September 1974. It was formed by a group of people who had been members of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and who supported Brian Faulkner after the proposals contained in the Sunningdale Agreement had been rejected by most of the members of the UUP. This group of people had contested the 1974 Westminster election under the title 'Unionist Pro-Assembly'. In the elections to the Constitutional Convention on 1 May 1975 the UPNI obtained 7.7 per cent of the first preference votes. By the 1977 District Council elections on 18 May 1977 the UPNI received only 2.4 per cent of the first preference votes. Following poor performances in two elections in 1979 and again at the District Council elections in 1981 the party was wound up.