Voters will not forgive parties who fail to grasp the opportunity Gerry Adams is creating to bring devolution back to Stormont, a senior Sinn Fein figure claimed today.
During campaigning for next Thursday's General and Local Government Elections in Northern Ireland, the party's general secretary Mitchel McLaughlin said the clear message coming back from the doorsteps was that people wanted their politicians to revive the political institutions.
However his rival for the Foyle Westminster seat, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan hit back that Sinn Fein was playing catch up in the political process with others who had been demanding in recent years an end to IRA violence.
Mr McLaughlin argued: "Given the woeful performance of the part time British Direct Rule ministers, the only way in which the big issues of job creation, water charges, racism and sectarianism and education and health can be effectively and decisively dealt with is by locally elected and accountable politicians.
"The recent initiative by Gerry Adams offers all of the participants in the process a road map back into the Assembly and the Executive.
"People on the doorsteps will be unforgiving of any political party who for whatever selfish or electoral reason fails to grasp this opportunity and the alternative path forward which it offers."
Earlier this month at the start of the election campaign, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams called on the IRA to consider abandoning armed struggle and pursuing its goals through politics.
However unionists and rival nationalists on both sides of the border have responded cynically to the move, with some dismissing it as an electoral stunt.
With devolution suspended in Northern Ireland since October 2002, Mark Durkan said it was the failure of the Sinn Fein leadership to tackle IRA activity which led to the suspension of the power sharing executive and other political institutions.
"Failure by the leadership of Sinn Fein has given us two and a half years of suspension and the series of failed deals and flawed deals that have come with it," the SDLP retorted.
"The strongest vote for a return to the principles and workings of the Good Friday Agreement is to vote for the SDLP in this election - the one party which had totally upheld the Agreement.
Mr Durkan is defending his mentor, former SDLP leader John Hume's Westminster seat in a do or die battle with Mitchel McLaughlin.
Political pundits believe the battle for Foyle is too close to call.
PA