Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams says he does not know how long the IRA will take to respond to his call for it to embrace politics fully and abandon violence forever.
Mr Adams was speaking in Derry where he addressed the city's Chamber of Commerce as nominations opened for Northern Ireland's local government elections, which will take place on May 5th.
He denied that his call on the IRA to ponder its future was an electoral stunt. "It's entirely reasonable to ask how long it will take to complete this. In truth, I don't know at this point.
"It is my firm intention to stay away from speculating or interpreting the IRA's position but, because others have said there must be an answer within weeks, I have to say that in my opinion it is not likely that the IRA's process can conclude as hastily as that.
"Not if there is going to be a proper inclusive debate with the possibility of the response that I am looking for."
Mr Adams said he had thought long and hard before making last week's appeal to the Provisional IRA.
"The downward spiral of the peace process is not in the interests of the majority of people on this island," he said.
"It is, therefore, not in the interests of republicans. It is not in the interests, in my opinion, of the IRA."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan was also campaigning in Derry yesterday and launched his party's election billboards. He said he remained sceptical about Mr Adams's claims that his call was not an electoral stunt.
The Foyle Assembly member said: "It has all the hallmarks of a confidence trick. People who play a confidence trick try to exploit you when you want to believe something, so they can get something they want off you.
"There is a feeling that they are exploiting people who want to believe the IRA will go away in return for votes. But people have to realise that if they get those votes now, then no one will be able to hold them to account to deliver on that promise.
"That is why the best way to keep the pressure on republicans to honour their commitments under the agreement is to vote SDLP."
Mr Adams's remarks were also criticised by Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Peter Robinson. Mr Robinson told a Westminster campaign launch in Banbridge, Co Down that the republican movement was "imprisoned" by its involvement in paramilitarism and criminality.
"Is there any reason we should swallow their rhetoric this time?" the East Belfast MP told a rally for DUP Upper Bann candidate David Simpson. "None at all! They offer us only one reason to believe what they say - we should believe them because they tell us we should. And that is all it is - more talk - there is still no timetable, no commitment to action."
Echoing Mr Durkan's language, he accused Sinn Féin of attempting "a cynical electoral confidence trick".