The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, launched the party's manifesto and election campaign yesterday with an appeal for a high turnout and a recommendation of the partnership approach advocated by his party.
"The Good Friday Agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people, North and South," he said. "Now the ball is back in the court of the political parties. We must make it work."
The SDLP, he said, believed the agreement reflected the party's fundamental principle that respect for difference and agreement between the divided traditions were the only feasible road to political progress.
"The agreement provides for partnership government at all levels. We will be represented in government on the basis of our electoral mandate. We will ensure equality in the new system."
In a clear challenge to unionist politicians, he said: "To those who want to play the old preconditions game, it is clear to me and to the vast majority of the people that the implementation of the agreement clearly leads to total decommissioning and demilitarisation. Not just of the hardware of violence, of the guns and ammunition, but also of the mindsets which make it possible."
However, he also made clear his party was calling for voters to transfer their votes to the Ulster Unionist and Alliance parties, as well as Sinn Fein. "This is an election leading to partnership," he said. "We are quite sure that the people in coming out to vote will be very well of that partnership approach. We would have no objection to those who vote for the SDLP voting for other candidates devoted to a partnership approach," he said, in response to a question.
"There is a huge socio-economic agenda to address," he said. "That is why our manifesto goes into such detail on social and economic matters." He said that up to now too much attention had been devoted to the consequences of past political failures, obscuring the debate on real politics. "In the future parties will have to be judged on their policies rather than their identities."
The party's proposals included a long term economic development strategy, establishing a structured relationship between the public and private sectors, development of education and training, linking them to the economy, and a strategic approach to North-South links.
Earlier, the party's 38 (33 men and five women) candidates had been introduced to the press and posed for photos outside Belfast's Waterfront Hall. They were summoned into collective action by the party's communications director. "OK," he said, "what I want you to do is follow John and walk out to the balcony where all the press are and give a thumbs up at these people. Bunch a little bit more. Have we got a thumbs up? That's it."
One of the brightly dressed women in the front row asked: "What do we do with our thumbs now?" There was laughter from her fellow-candidates before they filed back in to watch and applaud the party political broadcast, unveiled for the first time yesterday.
It opened, not with any figure from the SDLP, but with Martin Luther King telling viewers he'd "been to the mountain top". There was also footage of the civil rights marches, showing some prominent members of the party looking much more youthful than they did at yesterday's press conference.
More recent clips from news footage were shown, reminding people of the visit of President Clinton, and, more poignantly, of Seamus Mallon's words following the murder of two young men in Poyntzpass last year, where he was accompanied by David Trimble.
The broadcast ended with John Hume asking viewers: "If the peoples of Europe cannot live apart, how can we live apart?"
The chairman of SDLP youth then introduced the party leader, "the architect of the peace process, the man who's given my generation hope", and the press conference began.
Afterwards, the chairwoman of the party's negotiating team and spokeswoman on women's issues, culture and the parades issue, Ms Brid Rodgers, drew the attention of The Irish Times to the five women candidates. "And four of them are in winnable seats," she said.