Rival unionist parties the DUP and TUV have reached an unlikely electoral agreement to avoid a by-election in Ballymoney council.
TUV leader Jim Allister did not follow through with threats to force a poll following the resignation of DUP councillor Roy Wilson, instead allowing a motion to co-opt former council member Robert Halliday into the vacant seat.
In exchange, the DUP will not resist the co-option of a TUV member on to Craigavon council when incumbent Mark Russell stands down later this summer.
But on Monday night both parties had very different interpretations of the deal.
While the TUV hailed it as unionism co-operating to avoid costly by-elections, the DUP claimed Mr Allister had backed down over fears of a heavy defeat in Ballymoney.
A TUV spokesman said it made sense for both parties not to challenge their respective co-options.
"In these circumstances it was mutually advantageous to both parties to follow the course agreed and thereby the ratepayers of both Ballymoney and Craigavon can be saved expense," he said, adding that the TUV had also held talks with the UUP over the situation in Craigavon.
But the DUP's Mervyn Storey said his party would never have forced a by-election in Craigavon, which he said had a tradition of amicable co-options.
"Jim didn't so much run away from this one as gallop," said the Ballymoney councillor and North Antrim MLA.
"He did it for purely party political reasons. He did this to save his political hide as he knew he wasn't prepared to fight a by-election in North Antrim, not because he suddenly wanted to save the taxpayers money."
© Press Association