The SDLP has said Northern Ireland's "Ayatollah", the Rev Ian Paisley, should be "sent packing" in Wednesday's Assembly election.
East Antrim candidate Mr Danny O'Connor said the DUP leader was determined to destroy the Belfast Agreement and it was time to "put Paisley back in his box".
Dr Paisley featured prominently in his party's election broadcast last night. "For four weeks the DUP have tried to keep Paisley in the background but arrogance and hubris mean they now want him front and centre of the campaign.
"The DUP are still the party directed by the will of one man - Ian Paisley, the Ayatollah. He has not mellowed over the years and his underlings still carry out his orders without question," Mr O'Connor said.
The SDLP's director of elections, Ms Bríd Rodgers, said Sinn Féin's claim it would emerge as the largest nationalist party in Stormont was a "spin too far".
The SDLP would remain the largest nationalist party in the Assembly, she said. Sinn Féin and the DUP were "the terrible twins of this election", but both had been left "in a state of discomfort" by the SDLP which was fighting "the sharpest and most effective campaign".
Ulster Unionist South Belfast candidate Mr Michael McGimpsey has said Sinn Féin and the SDLP should forget about "pipe-dreams" of Irish unity and get on with making Northern Ireland work.
"A united Ireland is further away than ever. This is not unionist chest-beating but a simple statement of fact. I want to send a clear message to both parties - there won't be a united Ireland, forget about it.
"You have signed up to the agreement, to the consent principle, Articles 2 and 3 have been amended. The latest census figures, when taken with population trends, point clearly to a majority that will chose to remain a part of the UK as long as any of us can see into the future."
The DUP is urging the British government to look at alternative ways to rule the North and has set out three alternative models to the power-sharing Stormont government. They included a voluntary coalition of two or more parties as opposed to the "forced coalition" of UUP, SDLP, DUP and Sinn Féin.
The DUP also suggested a system which centred power with the Assembly and removed the need for a cabinet. The third option was a government with an effective exclusion mechanism which would enable the political institutions to continue if a party misbehaved.