The DUP has criticised any move to restore Mr Seamus Mallon as Deputy First Minister in the Northern Assembly without an election. A senior member, Mr Nigel Dodds, said such a move would be a "tawdry attempt" to change the rules of the Assembly in favour of the pro-agreement parties.
Mr Dodds said there was an attempt by Mr David Trimble and the SDLP to pretend, "despite Mr Mallon's resignation being accepted in the House of Commons, despite the fact that he lost his car, all his emoluments and perks, that in fact he hasn't resigned at all". Mr Dodds compared the move to soap opera.
The DUP's annual conference in the La Mon House hotel today will hear a number of motions in areas starting with health and education and concluding with roads and youth.
The party's Tandragee branch is proposing a motion calling for victims' groups to get funding from the British government as opposed to ex-prisoners' groups.
The conference will also be asked to reject the Patten Commission report on policing.
According to another motion, those who voted for the Belfast Agreement are to blame for the report, which will lead to the disbandment of the RUC.
The conference will be called on to agree that the party will never "aid the development towards a united Ireland that lies at the heart of the Belfast Agreement".