Dr Kieran Deeny polled more than 6,000 votes in West Tyrone

A doctor who topped the poll in the Northern Ireland Assembly election is to form a new political party.

Dr Kieran Deeny, the independent assembly member for West Tyrone, was the surprise package in the November 2003 elections when he won a seat on a single issue ticket to save hospital services in Omagh.

The decision to set up a new party was taken at a meeting of his supporters in the town on Thursday.

Dr Deeny said he believed that it would help his cause to form a party. No decision has been taken as yet over a name.

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Deeny said: "We are not going to forget why I was elected and why this huge group came together.

"If I simply am seen as a protest vote, I will get nowhere.

"We are trying to achieve an objective and do it politically. Already we are a party, a coalition, working towards a just objective. There is a danger in being single issue, being limited and excluded.

"If becoming a political party is what it takes to be recognised and to be respected and to have some weight in an assembly, then we will do that."

Laurence Rush whose wife, Elizabeth, was killed in the Omagh bombing, was at the meeting.

"The people who support him (Dr Deeny) know the issues concerned. I think it is the way to move forward," he said.

Another supporter said: "Dr Deeny was elected on a single issue and will be willing to embrace all the other issues that go with politics."

However, SDLP West Tyrone MLA Eugene McMenamin said: "Kieran Deeny was elected to fight for one issue, not create a new party. There is no need for him to do so now."

He added: "Kieran Deeny has no need to start a new party to fight the de-Bruin-Brown decision. That party already exists, and its name is the SDLP."