The battle for the hearts and minds of Ulster Unionist Council members has been intensifying in the run-up to Saturday's crucial council meeting as senior unionist figures have come out against the Mitchell proposals.
The former UUP party leader, Lord Molyneaux, has written to delegates calling on them to reject the devolution-decommissioning plan. The letter is also signed by Mr Robert Saulters, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge.
At the same time, a video highlighting the plight of victims of violence has been sent to delegates. The dissident Ulster Unionist Assembly member Mr Billy Armstrong said he did not believe that Sinn Fein was truly committed to decommissioning.
"Through my involvement in various community groups in Mid-Ulster, people of the nationalist persuasion tell me that the IRA will never decommission. Considering these views and no guarantees from the UK government to remove Sinn Fein from the executive when a start of decommissioning does not take place, I cannot agree that this is the way forward," Mr Armstrong said.
He said the outcome of the Mitchell review had proved yet again that violence achieved results. "We, the Ulster Unionist Party, are the only party that truly wants genuine peace and prosperity for all the people of Northern Ireland without the threat of bomb and bullets lingering in the background.
"I will hold to my pledges to the people of Mid-Ulster - I believe that decommissioning must come before devolution," Mr Armstrong concluded.
A group of 300 Catholic and Protestant clergy who yesterday met pro-agreement politicians at Stormont to express support for the deal reached in the Mitchell review, have been criticised by anti-agreement politicians.
DUP Assembly member Mr Sammy Wilson described the meeting as a "scraping of the immoral barrel" by those who had abandoned the principles of the Gospel to promote the political goal of the Northern Ireland Office.
Mr Roger Hutchinson from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party, himself a pastor of the Pentecostal Church, accused the pro-Mitchell clergy of bias and prejudice and of acting without an electoral mandate.
But the Rev Ken Newell, a Presbyterian minister, said he was not disheartened by such reactions. "We represent a fair slice of the pizza of religious beliefs in Northern Ireland and we will not be sidelined or put down."
Meanwhile, a senior Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Sir Reg Empey, has accused the DUP of hypocrisy for being prepared to take up its two executive seats while trying to wreck the Assembly at the same time.
Sir Reg said the DUP's decision to take up its seats came as no surprise. While the DUP claimed to pursue a policy of "smashing" Sinn Fein, it had sat down with Sinn Fein on 99 occasions at 99 meetings of Assembly committees, Sir Reg said.
"They sit with Sinn Fein at local government level. They have taken part in debates with Sinn Fein in the Assembly chamber. They have sat with them in 99 meetings of Assembly committees. And they have the gall to accuse us of reneging on manifesto pledges," he added.
Sir Reg said his party had always been up-front about all its political dealings. "The UUP will continue to use the front door when it comes to politics and we will continue to consult with and seek the approval of our ruling bodies for everything we do. The DUP skulk around the back door, saying one thing to their electorate and then sneaking into the process to do the opposite," he said.
The DUP claim that it would only take up its seats to prevent them from being allocated to Sinn Fein was "self-serving nonsense", Sir Reg added.
"If the DUP refused to accept their seats upon the executive the operation of the d'Hondt system would actually lead to one further seat for the UUP and a single seat for the Alliance Party. Neither Sinn Fein nor the SDLP would gain an extra seat," he concluded.
The DUP yesterday dismissed criticism levelled at the party by the Northern Secretary in the British House of Commons as a "smokescreen".
"The attack by Peter Mandelson on the DUP is a very transparent smokescreen designed to deflect attention away from the real hypocrisy and uturn of the Trimble leadership of the UUP," the DUP Secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said.