SDLP reaction"What we had was hype this morning, hope this afternoon and now this evening it's a debacle," the SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said last night.
Mr Durkan expressed concern that Gen de Chastelain could be made the scapegoat following yesterday's developments, which were not helped by all the "hype and spin".
The former Northern Deputy First Minister said: "Those who rely on such choreography should learn that too much fancy footwork only trips them up.
"We need to retrieve from the flawed choreography the core of the deal which has certain positives and the potential for more."
Before yesterday evening's events unfolded, Mr Durkan welcomed the announcement that there would be elections on November 26th.
Arguing they should never have been postponed in May, he said: "The SDLP enters these elections confident of their outcome and proud of our record.
"As the only party that has lived up to all of the agreement, voters can trust us to take the agreement forward.
"As the only party that actually delivers change - like on policing - voters know that we can bring about a new society. After five years of stop-go progress, the SDLP wants non-stop progress."
He said a more inclusive approach should be adopted.
"The reality is this is not the first time since the agreement that the two governments have taken the approach of concentrating on the problem politics as it were. In fact it has marked the approach since the agreement.
"Our approach and our frustration over recent times has been that governments should be talking to all parties about all of the agreement so that, whenever all the pro-agreement parties are in front of the public, we can together say with confidence that things are positive and things are going forward and that the agreement's future is assured.
"I don't see how any of the positive things that will be there today would have been prevented by having a more inclusive approach."