There is a sense of ritual about the electoral contest in West Belfast. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams pointed out to The Irish Times that in the last Westminster elections he had the highest vote of any MP "in Ireland or Britain".
But he quickly adds that, having lost the seat temporarily to the SDLP's Dr Joe Hendron in the 1990s, he is "not . . . what's the word?" Does he mean complacent? "Yes, complacent."
Nowadays the SDLP candidate is Alex Attwood, who got 19 per cent of the vote compared to 66 per cent for Adams in 2001. But Attwood shows no sign of despair or desperation. He has, after all, just completed the London marathon, so he knows a thing or two about the long haul. "I always finish my marathons."
Neither candidate is willing to talk directly about the other. Asked about the SDLP view that the best way to build pressure on the IRA to stand down was to vote for "democratic nationalism" - namely, the SDLP - Adams refuses to be drawn. "If I may say so, I'm not going to be interviewed about the SDLP."
He's more forthcoming on the subject of visits to the North by Dublin Ministers Michael McDowell and Dermot Ahern, which he saw as an attempt to assist the SDLP. "I don't take umbrage," he says.
The Sinn Féin leader was accused of being partitionist but says that accusation was "very childlike and infantile".
He would encourage these Ministers to visit, for example, the inquiry into the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson or the Bloody Sunday tribunal. But the latest incursions were another story: "This is the first time that ministers have electioneered, certainly in my experience."
While his own re-election is virtually certain, does he think the appalling murder of Robert McCartney in the Short Strand would damage Sinn Féin? He reiterates his pledge - which has been greeted with scepticism in some quarters - to do "all that I can" to help get justice for the McCartney family.
But, he says: "The family have alienated a lot of republicans from them because they appear to be tarring all of Sinn Féin, or indeed all republicans with that dastardly deed." He adds: "Opponents of Sinn Féin, particularly the SDLP, are using this very horrific murder in this election campaign."
Nor does he accept that his speech in which he appeared to be urging the IRA to stand down was an election gimmick. "As far as I am concerned, I have pointed in an unprecedented way, publicly, to a direction that I want republicans to follow."
Meanwhile, at the SDLP office on the Andersonstown Road, Alex Attwood also avoids direct references to his main opponent. But he is obviously confident of improving on his performance last time out: "The electoral tide has turned." Attwood continually refers to the events of "the last four months" as having brought about a sea-change among sectors of the nationalist electorate.
Traditional SDLP voters and people who simply stayed away would now be "more motivated to come out".
Essentially, Attwood sees the IRA as vulnerable to public pressure and he is telling voters that the best way to augment that pressure is to vote SDLP, which he sees as part of a broad consensus in "democratic nationalism" that includes Dublin, Irish-America and families such as the McCartneys who have combined to put pressure on the Provisionals.
Canvassing among the neat, brickfronted houses of Stockman's Avenue and Stockman's Drive ("Bairbre de Brún lives here"), Attwood gets a friendly response on doorsteps. The only sour note was struck by a woman with two children at college and feeling the pinch - she felt the SDLP should have done more on the issue of third-level fees.
The loyalist and unionist heartland of the Shankill Road is also part of this constituency and there won't be many votes there for either Adams or Attwood.
Instead, the battle for the 5,000-strong unionist vote is between longtime UUP councillor Chris McGimpsey and Diane Dodds of the DUP, who scraped a surprise seat in the 2003 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Her husband Nigel is MP for neighbouring North Belfast.
A colourful independent with a message, Prof Liam Kennedy from Queen's University hails from Co Tipperary but has lived in the North for many years. He is campaigning against the internal repression of republican and loyalist paramilitaries with the slogan, "Take a stand against fear."