The DUP predicts it can take three seats from the UUP and become the largest unionist party. For its supporters it is a second chance to ditch the Agreement. David Trimble got devolution. If the DUP got their way, power would go back to London. The DUP have no realistic alternative,' he said.
Tactical voting is another big theme.
A slight shift in voting patterns in areas like North Down and Strangford might save one seat for Trimble and gain his party another. Enough probably to save his leadership until the 1 July deadline for the IRA to begin decommissioning arms. In North Belfast, however, a double war is being waged. In the Ballysillan estate the struggle between loyalists is fought with bullets. Ominously for Trimble, the UVF and its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, refuse to take sides in the political war.