Constituency profile: West Belfast: Gerry Adams could lead a team of five Sinn Féin Assembly members from this high-profile constituency on November 27th. Unionists, on the other hand, may successfully tackle the twin problems of low turnout and poor transferring to secure a seat.
Both parties are targeting the SDLP's second seat. The result could have a major influence on any future Assembly.
This is one of the North's most important constituencies, even though it is the second smallest. Despite being enlarged in 1983 and 1995, it now has just 50,873 electors, down from 58,901 on the 2001 register.
This follows a tightening of registration procedures which caused the register to fall to just 48,154 in December 2002.
Sinn Féin denounced it as "shabby work" by the Electoral Office.
The area is strongly republican, but there is also a possible unionist quota drawn from the loyalist Shankill area.
Sinn Féin enters this election holding four of the six seats and aiming for a fifth. Dr Joe Hendron's grasp of his seat for the SDLP seems secure, leaving the second seat the main prize to be fought over by Sinn Féin and the two largest unionist parties.
The unknown effect of the new register makes the destination of the fifth and the final seat particularly difficult to predict.
Sinn Féin is outwardly confident about increasing its holding to five seats, but it is losing Mr Alex Maskey, the party's first Belfast Lord Mayor, to contest South Belfast.
The SDLP admits privately its second seat, held by party chairman Mr Alex Attwood, is under pressure but proclaims publicly that Sinn Féin has it all to do to corner five out of six seats. Only a small swing from Sinn Féin could cost it its fourth seat.
Possibly the greatest threat to Mr Attwood's seat comes from the DUP. The party has nominated Ms Diane Dodds, wife of the North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds. Last time out in 1998 the Ulster Unionist candidate, Mr Chris McGimpsey, was marginally behind Mr Attwood and one theory has it that his standing among unionists has increased following his interventions in the loyalist feud.
Unionists voted tactically in the Westminster election in 1992 when Dr Hendron ousted Mr Adams. Sinn Féin regained the seat convincingly in 1997. How they decide to give their first preferences and then transfer will prove critical this time.
The unionist turnout is lower than in republican and nationalist areas of the constituency - just 59 per cent say the Ulster Unionists - and this too could affect the direction of the unpredictable sixth seat.