The Ulster Independence Movement developed out of the Ulster Independence Committee in 1994 as a formal political party. Its leader, Rev Hugh Ross, contested the 1994 European Election where he gained 7,858 first preference votes and saved his deposit. However, the UIM's voting share dropped with the emergence of the UDP and the PUP in the 1996 Forum election. The UIM took part in the No campaign in the 1998 referendum on the Good Friday Agreement arguing that its arrangements institutionalised sectarianism. Only two candidates contested seats in the 1998 Assembly elections. In Janaury 2000, the UIM disbanded itself as a political party and reconsituted itself as a 'ginger group'.