ON THE eve of an election whose primary purpose is to select and provide a mandate to participants in all party negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland party leaders will make a last minute appeal today for a high turnout of voters.
With little or no sign of election lever throughout the North, and widespread public confusion about the voting system, the possibility has arisen of an exceptionally low poll. Wet weather forecast for tomorrow will be an added deterrent.
However, some party leaders continued to express hopes of a last minute upsurge of voter interest, if only because no fewer than 23 parties are campaigning, appealing to all facets of Northern political opinion.
The vagaries of the electoral "list system" being used for the first time in the North have made the outcome of tomorrow's poll one of the most difficult to predict.
In most of the 18 constituencies, individual party fortunes will depend on the extent traditional supporters rally to the polling booths. Few observers, however, expect the turnout to match the 69.7 per cent who voted in the last Westminster general election in 1992.
In an eve of poll message yesterday, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said tomorrow's election was crucial, "crucial for the development of the peace process and for the achievement of a just and lasting peace, settlement in Ireland".
In a statement, the Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice, warned the IRA that if it failed to renew its ceasefire, and thereby excluded Sinn Fein from the talks, it would be making a "serious political blunder". There was a moral and political imperative on them to reinstate the ceasefire, he said.
Last minute canvassing by all the parties will continue today against the background of apparent public apathy.
The campaign has been complicated and distracted by the wrangling and speculation about the issues in particular the decommissioning debate to be given priority in the all party negotiations due to begin on June 10th.
As a result, much of the electorate is confused and divided over the purpose of the election.