Constituency profile - South Belfast: Anything could happen in what is perhaps the most closely contested Westminster battle, writes Dan Keenan.
If any one constituency sums up the rivalry both between and among the parties across Northern Ireland, it is this one.
Before now, this was an Ulster Unionist bastion which the DUP did not question and the SDLP and Sinn Féin could only tilt at. This time anything can happen.
It is perhaps the most socially and politically diverse electoral area in the North. In the 2001 census, 41 per cent of people in the constituency were from a Catholic "community background" and 52 per cent Protestant. The constituency includes prosperous and comfortable Malone, the Queen's University area and the gritty streets of the loyalist Village, Sandy Row and the Taughmonagh estate.
Candidates do not agree on how many main contenders there are. The DUP says it's a two-horse race between them and the SDLP. The Ulster Unionists agree - but claim instead they are in the leading unionist position to fight the SDLP. The SDLP says it's a three-horse race which could see its man breaking through the gap created by bitterly divided unionists. Sinn Féin widens the field to four, insisting that it offers the best-organised nationalist/republican candidacy.
The Alliance party denounces all of the above as tired and sectarian parties which have lost all claim to the centre ground and who can only offer "the same old same old".
Represented since 1981 by the Rev Martin Smyth, South Belfast has opted in consecutive elections for what the anti-agreement camp calls a "traditional unionist". The late Rev Bradford, who was murdered, was such an MP, having been a former member of the Vanguard party. The Rev Smyth, too, was solidly against the pro-agreement and pro-Trimble camp.
This time, however, it is the UUP leader's trusted colleague Michael McGimpsey who carries the UUP colours into this election. For the first time his party faces a DUP challenge - Jimmy Spratt, an RUC officer for 30 years in south Belfast and former leader of the Police Federation, the rank-and-file officer's union is the DUP's candidate.
He echoes the campaign message which is ringing so loudly in many other constituencies: the Belfast Agreement has failed, unionists have done badly and have turned on Mr Trimble, opting for stronger and more principled leadership under the DUP.
Scenting a unique opportunity to break the unionist grip, lower Ormeau Road family doctor and SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell hopes to galvanise non-unionist voters around his campaign.
However, former Belfast lord mayor Alex Maskey says that as Dr McDonnell came behind him at the 2003 Assembly poll, he is in no position to claim the role as lead nationalist.
Some Smyth voters may desert McGimpsey and the UUP now that they are championing the Trimble cause. Others may punish the DUP for challenging the Ulster Unionists and creating an opening for nationalism.
UUP workers on the doorstep repeat their charge against "Splitter Spratt" that only the opponents of the Union can benefit from the DUP push.
Both the UUP and the SDLP assert that the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin are out to damage their main rivals' campaigns.
Dr McDonnell and Mr McGimpsey's canvassers believe the DUP would rather see the SDLP man elected. This would kill off the UUP totally and allow reunited unionism to fall into the DUP camp at the next Westminster election, the theory goes.
Mr McGimpsey sums up the charge: "The DUP have no hope of winning this seat and they know it. What they are about is trying to harm my vote in order to give [the constituency] to a nationalist. On the other side, I think McDonnell is clearly the strongest nationalist candidate."