David Trimble, the Northern Ireland politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize, resigned Saturday as head of a moderate Protestant party after losing his seat in the British parliament to a hardliner.
At a meeting with the president and chairman of his Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Trimble, 60, said, "I do not wish to continue as leader," according to a statement from his party.
The widely anticipated move came after David Simpson of the hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party ousted Trimble from his central Upper Bann constituency, making the largest casualty of Thursday's general election.
The defeat marked not only a personal blow for Trimble, a former first minister in Northern Ireland, but also for the Ulster Unionists.
The party, which for 80 years was the dominant political force in the British-ruled province, lost a total of five of its six seats in the House of Commons on polling day -- one of its worst ever results.
"There have been difficult times, but also times when we have been able to make a difference," Trimble said in the statement.
"I have no doubt that Northern Ireland is a much better place and unionism greatly advantaged because of our efforts," he said.
A special meeting of the Ulster Union executive is being organized to elect a new leader, at which point Trimble said he would step down.
A law professor by training, Trimble signed the 1998 Good Friday accord that set up a Catholic-Protestant power sharing assembly, which was suspended in October 2002 amid charges that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was involved in spying.
The mild-mannered Protestant shared the Nobel Peace Prize that same year with John Hume, the main architect of the deal.
Trimble was portrayed by critics, however, as too soft in presenting the demands of the Protestants, who favor continued union with Britain, in their negotiations with the Catholics, who want union with Ireland.
Firebrand DUP leader Ian Paisley said Trimble's party foundered at the polls because it had lost the confidence of the unionist people over a decision to go into government with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, without first getting them to give up all their guns.
In contrast, Paisley was the biggest winner on Thursday, with the DUP scooping up half the 18 seats allocated to Northern Ireland in parliament.
Its Catholic rival Sinn Fein also did well taking five seats, up one from the last election in 2001.
Trimble, who had managed until now to shake off a series of attempts to oust him as the UUP leader, cut his political teeth in the hardline unionist Vanguard movement in the early 1970s. In 1990 he became a member of the British parliament, and five years later won the Ulster Unionist leadership. At that time, the party had 10 seats in the Commons.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who hailed Trimble for his vision and courage, said it "would not have been possible to bridge the deep divide in Northern Ireland" without Trimble and achieve the 1998 Good Friday agreement.
Britain and Ireland have been trying to revive negotiations for a final political settlement but the talks have faltered over charges of IRA links to crime and its refusal to provide photographic proof of disarmament.
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