The battle for the Upper Bann seat has again been billed as a showdown between the main unionist parties. The DUP insists it can wrest the seat from the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble.
Mr Trimble, MP there since 1990, faces his electorate for the first time since the Belfast Agreement and the failure to resolve the Drumcree stand-off.
Mr David Simpson, a local businessman, has been politically active in the DUP for 15 years, but this is his first time as a candidate for the party. He stresses that in the last two elections Mr Trimble's first-preference vote fell from 20,836 in 1997 to 12,338 in the 1998 Assembly elections.
"There is all to play for. This will be one of the tightest election ever seen in this constituency with myself winning," he says. Local sources suggest Mr Trimble's vote will be dented but he will hold the seat.
The SDLP and Sinn Fein are also determined to give Mr Trimble a close contest. Ms Dolores Kelly of the SDLP admits Ms Brid Rogers will be a hard act to follow, but she believes she will increase the vote.
Ms Dara O'Hagan predicts Sinn Fein will become the largest nationalist party in the constituency after this election. "This seat has always been regarded as a unionist seat," he says, "but if you look at the figures there is no reason for that. This is going to be a republican seat in the future." The Workers' Party has nominated Mr Tom French.