of their most well known figure. Alliance was also in danger of losing further support to the cross-community Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. The political arrangements of the Assembly placed great stress on the need for a "majority in both communities" and a party that refused to identify as being a part of either found its influence diminished. Under Neeson's leadership Alliance sought to enhance its credentials as a party that was unambiguously in favour of the Agreement. The first major electoral test came in the South Antrim by-election in 2000. With both the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party fielding candidates hostile to the Agreement, Alliance sought to gain votes from those unionists who supported it. In a fierce contest that was clearly always going to be between the two main unionist parties, Alliance instead found its vote squeezed. The following year the 2001 general election saw a number of misfortunes for Alliance and Neeson personally. He failed to be selected to fight his own constituency by his local association. An attempt to negotiate an electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists, with the hope of Alliance winning the East Belfast seat broke down in negotiations. Subsequently, Alliance took the controversial decision to withdraw from several constituencies which looked likely to be fierce contests between the Ulster Unionists and/or the SDLP against the Democratic Unionists and/or Sinn Féin, instead urging voters to support the pro Agreement candidate best placed for peace. The party lost a number of council seats in the local elections held on the same day. Shortly after the election the party's deputy leader, Seamus Close, resigned citing differences over direction with the leadership. Subsequently, in September 2001 Neeson chose to resign from the leadership, being succeeded by David Ford, although he remained a member of the Assembly. In the 2003 Assembly election he held his seat and was subsequently selected by his local association to fight East Antrim in the 2005 general election. Having increased the party's vote at that election, Neeson was re-elected to the Assembly comfortably at the 2007 election, on a party vote share of 16%. Seán Neeson stepped down from the assembly to spend more time with his family, saying "It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the people of East Antrim at the Assembly. It has been very rewarding and at time extremely challenging trying to build peace