Final day for Assembly election nominations

The problems of sectarianism in Northern Ireland were due to become a major campaign issue today as Northern Ireland’s politicians prepared for the final day of nominations for this month’s Assembly elections.

As parties and independent candidates prepared to lodge their nomination papers, SDLP leader Mark Durkan was addressing community relations on the campaign trail.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was today handing in his nomination papers for West Belfast.

The West Belfast MP has just returned from a visit to the United States where he met President George Bush’s special envoy on Northern Ireland, Ambassador Richard Haass.

The loyalist Progressive Unions were also expected to complete their nominations with their leader David Ervine due to return his papers.

The Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists were also preparing to launch a new billboard campaign for the November 26 election.

Strangford MP Iris Robinson and party chairman Maurice Morrow were lined up to unveil the billboard highlighting concerns about the proposed transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont.

The DUP’s billboard is expected to depict a voter worried about the prospect of Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly becoming minister for policing and justice.

The billboard was being launched in East Belfast.

The party’s battle bus was also touring several constituencies north of Belfast, joining candidates in South Antrim, North Antrim and Mid Ulster.