Eight days remain before the people of Northern Ireland go to the polls. It is a time for careful consideration and cool heads. The outcome of these elections will decide the pecking order of political parties in a new Northern Assembly and, more importantly, the capacity of the two communities to move forward together to create a peaceful and egalitarian society.
The two Governments will be hoping for a positive outcome, given their enormous investments of time and effort in the establishment of the Belfast Agreement.
There are a number of straws in the wind. Opinion polls have charted resilience in support for both the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP, in spite of early predictions that they would be swamped by the Democratic Unionist Party and by Sinn Féin. The tendency of such surveys to underestimate support for the more extreme political parties must, however, be borne in mind. The gap between the SDLP and Sinn Féin, at two percentage points, is extremely tight. But the UUP has a more comfortable lead of six percentage points over the DUP.
The most significant development, so far, has been the decision of Mr David Trimble to actively promote the benefits of the agreement. In the past, nationalists were critical of the UUP leader for not "selling" the Belfast Agreement. But now, at a time when large sections of the unionist community have become disillusioned because of failure to secure the decommissioning of IRA weapons, he is doing just that. The creation of jobs, the normalisation of daily life, the devolution of power to Northern Ireland and the fact that the last sectarian murder took place more than 15 months ago, have all been credited to the benign influence of the agreement. And Mr Trimble warned against "electoral fraud" by a DUP leadership that was promising to renegotiate the agreement.
The SDLP has advocated the use of tactical voting against the DUP in order to protect the agreement while, at the same time, Mr Mark Durkan has ruled out a vote-sharing arrangement with Sinn Féin. These are difficult times for the party that championed the agreement and helped to bring Sinn Féin in from the political cold. The rivalry between the SDLP and Sinn Féin has never been more intense. But the use of tactical voting by unionist supporters of the agreement could give the DUP a bloody nose while allowing the SDLP to retain its position as the leading nationalist party in the Assembly.
Apathy amongst voters is a matter of concern. Failure by the UUP to get out its vote could allow anti-agreement unionists to gain the ascendancy, thereby ushering in an extended period of direct rule. Even if Mr Trimble successfully rebuffs the DUP onslaught, issues such as decommissioning and acts of completion will have to be sorted out before an Executive can be formed. Such uncertainties are unfortunate. But they should encourage people to vote and to influence the evolution of society in Northern Ireland.