Trimble Retains Unionist Post but Peace Process Is Muddied

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  Assailed by critics of compromise, Nobel laureate David Trimble narrowly won reelection Saturday as leader of the Ulster Unionists, a Protestant party central to Northern Ireland’s peace accord.

The Ulster Unionists’ grass-roots council gave Trimble 457 votes to 348 for a last-minute challenger, the Rev. Martin Smyth. The party veteran argued that Trimble had been wrong to attempt a coalition government involving Sinn Fein, the party linked to the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

Trimble’s victory came by a much tighter margin than predicted. He also suffered a significant defeat when members voted to link the party’s future participation in government to retention of the formal name of the province’s predominantly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

All sides agreed that the decision will complicate efforts to relaunch any power-sharing government. Britain had promised to change the force’s name to the more neutral-sounding Police Service for Northern Ireland. Under terms of the 2-year-old peace accord, the goals of forming a local government and reforming the police weren’t to be linked.

A four-party government was formed in December, giving local leaders some self-rule. But the coalition was suspended in February after the IRA refused to begin disarming.