Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has accused the SDLP of engaging in stunt politics after it staged a protest against MI5 operations in the North.
SDLP politicians Alex Attwood, Dolores Kelly, Declan O'Loan and other party candidates erected a sign stating: "MI5 - Spooks Headquarters" outside the British secret service's new £20 million headquarters at Holywood, Co Down, yesterday.
They staged the protest after meeting PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde to complain that MI5 remained "unaccountable and uncontrolled" in Northern Ireland, notwithstanding Sinn Féin's assertion that it had removed the organisation from any influence on civic policing.
SDLP Upper Bann candidate Ms Kelly said Sinn Féin "instead of pretending that they have won something on MI5" should be working to ensure that the Patten proposals on police reform were fully implemented.
She said neither Mr Adams nor Sinn Féin's policing spokesman Gerry Kelly gained any concessions from British prime minister Tony Blair in discussions on MI5.
"Gerry Kelly said that the Blair/Adams deal on MI5 gets us 'a very major step closer' to getting MI5 out of Ireland. In fact what we are getting is a huge new headquarters and MI5 agents able to operate without any accountability to [police ombudsman] Nuala O'Loan."
Mr Adams, who was canvassing in Belfast city centre yesterday, was dismissive of the SDLP protest. He said he remembered the last Assembly election when the SDLP claimed it would stop the DUP making political progress.
"How did they deal with that? Mark Durkan stood like an eejit in the middle of the road with a 'Stop' sign. So, these are little stunts. They are not serious politics. They are only posturing. What we are about is our agenda. We took MI5 out of civic policing. The SDLP put them into it.
"We don't want MI5 to play any role in the life of this island. We want civic policing. We want policing as a public service and that's a concept a lot of people need to get their heads around."
In Derry, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey yesterday launched his party's "manifesto for the west".
Sir Reg said one-quarter of the North's population lived in the west, and the area's special requirements must be tackled.
"The west has been poorly served in terms of infrastructure, transport links and economic opportunity. Co-operation with the Republic of Ireland can also be a contentious issues for communities in the west.
"The west can benefit from a positive working relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic - as long as the relationship is for our mutual benefit, and is accountable to the Northern Ireland Assembly and executive."
Meanwhile, one of the DUP candidates in Strangford, Simon Hamilton, has reiterated his party's demand for a substantial financial package for the North.
"While devolution is clearly the best way forward, devolution is surely doomed if any administration is not equipped with the financial tools to transform our economy."