THE SDLP leader has said it was important that the result of Thursday's election should transmit a message to the US, Europe and the rest of the world that the people of Northern Ireland were voting for peace.
The election must send out the loudest possible message "for talks and an end to violence for good", Mr John Hume said yesterday.
"To ensure that international goodwill remains and is harnessed for local political and economic good I am asking for voters to vote for talks, agreement and peace", he said.
Mr Hume predicted that his party would do well in the election. Canvass returns so far have been very positive, he added.
The Ulster Unionist MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone, Mr Ken Maginnis, taking up the same theme from the opposite perspective, said splitting the unionist vote would send the wrong message abroad.
"The form of election which has been imposed on Northern Ireland is a trap designed to fragment unionism and to allow the SDLP to appear equal to, or larger than, any unionist party", Mr Maginnis said.
Mr Steve McBride, the Alliance Party chairman, said the elected forum would provide a unique opportunity for real political dialogue. "It has the potential to be the most inclusive political body we have ever had, and that potential should be used to the full", he added.
"Nationalist parties like the SDLP have an obligation to use the forum to the full and to engage in serious dialogue with the other elected parties in it", Mr McBride said.
The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition claimed that only seven women will be returned to the forum from the mainstream parties. "This means that less than 10 per cent of the forum representatives will be women, and there is no guarantee that any of these women will be at all party talks", said Ms Monica McWilliams, of the coalition.
Only the Women's Coalition could guarantee women at the talks, she said.
