A FORMER Ulster Unionist leadership contender has revealed he voted for the Alliance Party in the assembly election.
John McCallister lost out to Mike Nesbitt in his bid to become UUP leader in 2012 before leaving to co-found NI21 the following year.
He later quit the now-defunct NI21 and continued as an independent MLA for South Down, but failed last year to be re-elected to Stormont.
Writing in the News Letter, Mr McCallister said this month's election showed that unionism must "re-connect with broader pro-union opinion".
"In common with thousands of other pro-union voters, I voted for Alliance. Others voted for the Greens, still others with pro-union beliefs stayed at home," he said.
"Why didn't I vote for a unionist candidate? Both unionist candidates in South Down were fine individuals – but their unionism wasn't my vision of unionism. The Alliance candidate's values were much closer to my own."
He added: "The assembly election results must be recognised by unionism as an urgent call to re-connect with broader pro-union opinion.
"Relying on the core vote alone, and not caring about being transfer-friendly, has failed. It is a strategy which has delivered a non-unionist majority in the assembly."
Alliance candidate Patrick Brown came close to securing the final seat in South Down after more than doubling his first-preference vote compared to last year.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP each retained two seats and the DUP one with Jim Wells, but the UUP's Harold McKee lost his seat as the number on offer dropped from six to five.
