ALLIANCE leader Naomi Long says she "absolutely refutes" allegations of ageism and racism within the party made by two councillors who have resigned.
The claims were made by Lisburn and Castlereagh councillors Geraldine Rice and Vasundhara Kamble.
Mrs Rice, the party's longest-serving councillor, said she believed she was viewed as "old school" – and had been told she wasn't "an acceptable face for Alliance today".
Mrs Kamble, originally from India, said Alliance had been a "cold house" for her and claimed she experienced "an undercurrent of racism".
However, Mrs Long said there was no basis for the allegations.
She said the claims follow Mrs Rice not being selected to become mayor, and a complaint about the pair voting with the DUP on a council matter.
"I'm disappointed that these councillors decided to resign and, in doing so, to sling mud at the party on their way out the door," Mrs Long said.
"That's unfortunate, but that was their decision.
"Obviously, given their good relationship with me in the past – I know both of them very well – there is no reason they wouldn't have been able to come to me and talk about it had there been any substance to these allegations at all."
The two councillors intend to remain on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council as independents.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, a tearful Mrs Rice said: "I feel that I have been stabbed in the back and slapped about the face by the party that I loved and loyally served for 28 years.
"I stood up to the DUP for decades in Castlereagh council, I went toe-to-toe with Peter Robinson, I've topped the poll in successive elections and they've treated me with a total lack of decency or respect."
The 70-year-old said the decision by the local Alliance group to nominate councillor Tim Morrow as the next mayor was "the straw that broke the camel's back".
She accused Alliance of reneging on a promise that she would be mayor when the position became available.
Mrs Kamble, who came to Northern Ireland from Mumbai in 1995, said she had "never felt welcome in the party" and found it "distant, cold and unfriendly".
However, Mrs Long told the BBC: "All of the evidence in terms of our diversity of party membership and diversity of age within our party would actually stand against those claims."
She added: "This is not about racism or ageism or any of those things, this is about disappointment – natural disappointment – on their part for not being selected for particular roles."
