THE former Ulster Unionist leader, Lord Molyneaux, has appealed for unionist unity in the run up to Thursday's Westminster election. Lord Molyneaux said that he had detected great concern among the electorate about unionist infighting.
"The key question is whether we want to see divisions perpetuated for another generation or, on polling day, to take the first essential steps towards restoring a unionism which speaks with one voice," he said.
By comparison, nationalists at Westminster spoke with one voice, he stated. "Unionism will continue to lose out if its message is not delivered as a unified assertion of the will of the people of Northern Ireland."
Lord Molyneaux said that regardless of whether the British Labour or Conservative parties formed the incoming government, new ministers at the Northern Ireland Office would be "putty in the hands" of civil service advisers for at least two years.
"This very week those advisers are preparing plans to tame the new ministers and prevent them straying from the path of failed initiatives, instead of promoting sound government," he said.
"The great dangers of those two years can be countered only by a resolute instruction on polling day requiring an end to the bickering."
The UUP candidate in East Belfast, Mr Reg Empey, has accused the shadow Northern Secretary, Dr Marjorie Mowlam, of "swallowing the SDLP" line on the North.
"Her package of so called confidence building measures, which includes structural changes to the RUC, a strengthened Fair Employment Commission and powers to the Parades Commission to ban marches, are totally one sided and biased towards the nationalist community," he said.
The Workers' Party's South Belfast candidate, Mr Paddy Lynn, has called on voters not to be afraid to change their voting habits. "The major parties have been in control of political development for more than 20 years, yet the situation is worse than ever.
"The real solution lies in rejecting their failed, divisive philosophies and in realising that there is an alternative," he said.
The DUP candidate in Strangford, Ms Iris Robinson, has criticised the Progressive Unionist Party for supporting her main rival in the election, the UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor.