The North's Parades Commission has said while it had "no wish to intervene in any parade", it took the view that the Long March, an 11-day, 117-mile walk from Derry to Portadown, due to start on June 24th, had the "potential to occasion very considerable disruption".
The commission yesterday published its preliminary view on the march, organised by Orangemen and unionist politicians as a "Protestant human rights walk". It will publish its ruling on the first stage of the march from Derry to Limavady today. Subsequent stages will be reviewed on a day-by-day basis.
The march will take in Coleraine, Ballymena and Lurgan and will arrive in Drumcree on July 4th, the day of the disputed Drumcree parade.
While only 50 are expected to walk the full distance, thousands of people as well as 38 feeder parades could join the march along the way.
In its preliminary view, the Commission said it was well aware of the "deep anxieties" which the marching season created for the whole community.
"Experience has shown that there are those on both sides of the community who will not hesitate to see it as an opportunity to threaten public order for their own ends. Very often such events attract supporters whom the organisers are unable to control", the commission's statement said.
According to the statement, the Commission had taken account of serious concerns expressed by a range of public figures, including calls from church leaders for the Long March to be called off.
In its editorial yesterday, the News Letter described the march as "sectarian, in the truest sense of the word" and said the choice of route and timing "could hardly be worse".
"The finishing point, in Portadown, on the morning of the proposed Drumcree march, certainly has not been chosen to minimise the potential for disruption," it concluded.
An editorial in the Irish News pointed out that over the past three years, 10 killings could be directly linked to the marching issue.