Election Diary: The North could be moving towards a two-party political entity, writes Gerry Moriarty Northern Editor.
This is the concluding stage of the election where candidates are apt to get rash and ratty. Most of the tussles are two-horse races between the SDLP and Sinn Féin, and the DUP versus the Ulster Unionists.
Most crucial are the battles between SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin and that in Upper Bann where Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is trying to resist the challenge of the DUP's David Simpson.
The results here could dictate whether there is any future for the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists.
But there are other important battles and South Belfast, uniquely a three-horse race in the campaign, is one of them.
The closeness of the race here accounts for the deluge of statements and claims from the three main candidates - Jimmy Spratt of the DUP, Michael McGimpsey of the UUP and Dr Alisdair McDonnell of the SDLP.
This, up to very recently, was viewed as an invincible UUP seat, but not any more. Spratt, pretty convincingly, claims he is now the lead candidate. McGimpsey in turn says this is a simple contest between himself and McDonnell, and that Spratt could "gift" the seat to the SDLP.
In turn, McDonnell is telling nationalist voters that anyone considering voting for the Sinn Féin candidate Alex Maskey is destroying an opportunity to build nationalist representation. McDonnell says Maskey "would prefer to see the seat remain in unionist hands rather than a nationalist winning it".
Yet, despite all this political hard sell you wonder is anybody paying attention out there. This election could mark a watershed in Northern politics where, like Britain, Northern Ireland essentially is a two-party state.
The difference, of course, is that across the water the winner takes all. Here the first, second, third and fourth are expected to share the spoils according to the division of the seats.
If the DUP and Sinn Féin hold, as is possible, 15 or 16 of the North's 18 Westminster seats after voting on Thursday, then future elections may follow the same pattern. Proportional representation in the local elections, also taking place on Thursday, may provide greater comfort for the SDLP and Ulster Unionists as Sinn Féin and the DUP are unlikely to achieve a virtual whitewash in that poll.
Nonetheless, the Westminster result is likely to determine the colour and shape of politics into the mid-term future at least. It should dictate whether the future is dark Orange and dark Green, or whether the paler shades of unionism and nationalism can moderate the overall political tone.
There is no shortage of observers out there who predict that with Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams running the place Northern society is destined to become more polarised and sectarian and generally miserable.
The more hopeful contend that even in this scenario, society need not be so awful, because essentially everybody is now pro-Belfast Agreement, notwithstanding the DUP rhetoric.
Whichever view you hold there is no gainsaying Gerry Adams's analysis that politics ahead will be a "battle a day".