ONE OF the most bitterly divided councils in Northern Ireland, unionist-controlled Craigavon Borough Council, adjoins another unionist-dominated council, Armagh.
But there partnership with the SDLP has ensured massive economic benefits. Armagh City and District Council is regarded as a prime example of how power- sharing works.
The area has benefited from a huge facelift, the result of millions of pounds investment from Europe and the US.
Likewise the council's image has also undergone a transformation. Armagh once had a council dominated by hours of bickering and little work of substance.
The period after the Anglo-Irish Agreement intensified divisions, but common sense and the dangling of some lucrative financial carrots helped smooth the path to peace.
Craigavon Borough Council has made much more tentative moves towards transformation. However, it retains an intensely divided image, exacerbated by the Drumcree stand-offs of the past two years, which have caused rifts in this already strained community.
Feelings run high and it is thought likely that Mr Breandan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, standing on an independent nationalist ticket, will be elected.
A nationalist mayor was chosen for six months last year. He was a dissident member of the SDLP, the main nationalist party in Craigavon.
Mr Hugh Casey, who is now standing in this election on an independent labour ticket, left the SDLP after a dispute over accepting an MBE award.
In general, however, SDLP councillors feel snubbed by their unionist colleagues and there are no signs of power-sharing in the council in the near future. There are straws in the wind which indicate that the little progress made may be lost.
The return to active politics of some former unionist councillors following this election may throw tentative moves towards partnership into jeopardy.
Unionist councillors were banned for five years from sitting on the council and heavily surcharged after a lengthy and costly court case disputing the sale of council land to a local GAA club.
Some of their wives took their places, but they are now eligible for re-election.
However, the council has allowed some local leisure centres to open on Sundays (on a trial basis only), a huge step forward from the archaic attitudes which dominated Craigavon Council for decades.
These issues have long since been laid to rest in Armagh, where there is a greater emphasis on developing the already international image of the area. This historic city now welcomes visitors from throughout the world.
Armagh Council's chief executive, Mr Des Mitchell, plays a pivotal role. Using diplomacy and tact, he has fostered unity amid division.
The council is dedicated to the positive promotion of the district. There is an economic vibrancy about the city, which has attracted a new Queen's University campus.
Positive is not a word that automatically springs to mind in the Craigavon Borough Council area.
It includes the loyalist town of Portadown, the mainly nationalist town of Lurgan and the sprawling entity known as Craigavon in between.
Craigavon was a new city built to relieve the population problem in Belfast, amid suspicions that it could become a white elephant. It is still not very popular but is slowly losing its failed image.
Unionists on the council have an absolute majority, 12 Ulster Unionists and four DUP, while there are five SDLP members, two Sinn Fein, two Alliance, one Workers' Party and one Independent Labour.
In Armagh the unionist position is a little closer; 10 Ulster Unionists, two DUP, nine SDLP and one Sinn Fein councillor.
There is a strong possibility that it will be even closer after this local government election.
One reason for co-operative structures in Armagh could be that in 1987 the council decided not to debate motions circulated from other councils.
Many of these motions are divisive and the council decided to mark them for information only.
The council then moved forward with its "Armagh Plan" and the political debate prevalent on most councils was largely dispensed with at Armagh.
"We are here to serve the people rather than to harangue over the politics of Northern Ireland," said Armagh SDLP councillor Pat Brannigan.
"We very rarely enter into political debate in Armagh and the results are there."