THERE was "massive anger" among nationalists at the refusal of the SDLP to discuss an election pact with Sinn Fein, Mr Pat Doherty, Sinn Fein candidate in, West Tyrone, said at his party's campaign launch yesterday.
"The SDLP are going to pay a very heavy price for that among the nationalist people who are very, very aware of the issue. They are very angry that the nationalist parties can't come together and they are placing the blame for this clearly on the shoulders of some members of the SDLP."
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, told the Belfast press conference it was the most important election since 1918. "It will take us all into the next century, into the new millennium." He had found from canvassing that many people were disappointed with the SDLP's rejection of a pact with Sinn Fein, especially since the unionist parties had been able to reach agreement.
"There are up to eight winnable nationalist seats and even yet Sinn Fein is prepared to meet with the SDLP to agree a pact.",
Asked if he had considered asking the IRA to suspend operations for the duration of the election campaign, Mr Adams said: "I'm not going to get into any speculation at all about what the IRA is at. We have our agenda, which is about getting the best vote possible for our party and seeing all of that in the context of the longer term goal of being part of the collective effort to build a real and proper inclusive peace process."
Mr Martin McGuinness Sinn Fein candidate in Mid Ulster, said that in recent years, some of the leading people in the SDLP had failed to understand the impact of the Hume Adams agreement on the thinking of nationalists.
"People on the doorstep know that the reason they are being denied the opportunity to elect seven or eight nationalist representatives is solely because of the refusal of the SDLP to recognise that there is a real opportunity here to move the situation forward and to advance the cause of Irish nationalism in this particular election."
The election had rekindled the hopes raised at the beginning of the IRA ceasefire in August 1994. "Many people expect that John Major is going to lose the election, that there is going to be a new British government and that that is going to present a new opportunity for peace. People are recognising that Sinn Fein has a very important contribution to make towards the rebuilding and restoration of that peace process.
. The UK Unionist MP, Mr Robert McCartney, has criticised the Women's Coalition in the election campaign, writes Carol Coulter in Belfast.
Welcoming their candidacy in his North Down constituency, he criticised their stance on decommissioning and on the entry of Sinn Fein into all party talks.
"The only woman I know of whom the Coalition has picked out individually for support has been Roisin McAliskey, who is contesting a German extradition warrant," he said.
Fair employment and the allocation of resources to different sections of the community were the themes of the Ulster Unionist Party yesterday.
Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, the party's candidate for Lagan Valley, suggested that the Fair Employment Commission served no useful purpose, and that its continued existence should be considered by any future government.
The SDLP, meanwhile, stressed the need to improve the North's health services. The party spokesman on health, Dr Joe Hendron, said it would use its relationship with the British Labour Party to ensure its policy became law in the next parliament.