Campaign launch/Alliance Party: The Alliance Party has pledged to make the Belfast Agreement more democratic and accountable following the assembly elections.
Speaking at the publication of the party's election manifesto in Belfast yesterday, its leader, Mr David Ford, said that during the forthcoming review of the agreement he would seek an end to sectarian division in the assembly and make ministers more accountable.
He also called for a return to "bread-and-butter issues", such as the environment, public transport, jobs and the economy.
Instead, he said the concentration on tribal politics had led to two campaigns of parallel politics, with unionists fighting among themselves and nationalists trying to "outgreen" each other.
"The parties of the former executive did not understand the importance of building a united community. We are not about calling for 2,000 jobs for Catholics alone, or seeking a fair deal just for Protestants," he said.
"Alliance is different. We want to restore trust, confidence and integrity to the political process. We are not looking over our shoulder at competing hardliners or tied to an outdated philosophy that cannot cope with the possibility of change."
Mr Ford said the Alliance party had taken risks for peace and made sacrifices for the sake of stability, but was determined to see the assembly work more effectively following the elections.
"We want to see change. We are looking forward to the review and we have already developed solid, workable proposals for it. We will not allow others to wreck the agreement," he said.
"We are going to make it more accountable, more stable through such things as working for an end to tyranny of sectarian designations that has held this process to ransom."
Among the policy issues put forward by the party are free personal care for older people, abolishing student tuition fees and reforming regional taxation.
He said the lack of focus on these issues, such as the main parties voting against Alliance plans for free personal care for the elderly, had been damaging for the community.
"In any other democracy, when parties do a complete U-turn on a policy and vote against something they pledged to introduce, it would be a political scandal," Mr Ford said.
"Yet in Northern Ireland there was barely a cheep of criticism in the media when other parties included personal care for the elderly in their manifesto."
The Alliance leader predicted that his party would hold on to its six MLAs in the assembly and was in with a chance of returning to the assembly with a slightly enlarged team.
He also called on voters to use their transfers to support candidates who were willing to work constructively together in the assembly.
"The Alliance alternative is an open, free and fair society where we are all equal citizens," Mr Ford said.
"Not a society where we merely tolerate difference, but rather a society where we celebrate diversity and cherish individuality."
