The SDLP has completed its nomination of candidates for Assembly elections on May 1st. But local party organisations have been bruised and there are threats of deselected candidates standing as independents in both the Foyle and Strangford constituencies.
A high-profile deselection of Ms Annie Courtney, who was co-opted to the Assembly following the resignation of Mr John Hume from his Stormont seat, has not prevented the party leader, Mr Mark Durkan, from telling The Irish Times that he can lead a Stormont group as large or larger than the current 24 back into a restored Assembly.
Party members privately admit the scale of the challenge from Sinn Féin, but all insist that talk of the party's demise is also premature.
They say also it must offer candidates on the basis of "gender, geography and generation" and not just on the need to counter Sinn Féin's rising tide.
The selection process just completed provides a clue to the party's thinking and strategy as May 1st looms. Some quietly admit that seats could be lost to Sinn Féin in nationalist areas, but party strategists insist that the party was unlucky not to have secured a larger Assembly group last time in 1998 and that the same mistakes will not be made again.
One senior member said the SDLP is prepared for perhaps a couple of losses but claimed that losses could be compensated for by gains in other constituencies where the party currently has no Stormont presence.
The next election will mark a new era for the party as none of the SDLP MPs - Mr John Hume, Mr Seamus Mallon and Mr Eddie McGrady - will be standing. The party deputy leader, Mrs Bríd Rodgers, is also standing down.
This is concentrating party minds on vote management strategies in areas where it is well established, and identifying normally unionist areas where single seats could be picked up.
Vulnerable areas include West Belfast, where the SDLP holds two of the six seats, and East Derry, where two seats are also held. There is no unionist Stormont representative in West Belfast, which includes the Shankill Road area. A concerted unionist effort to gain a seat, added to the Sinn Féin drive to take five seats, means the SDLP, which turned in a disappointing performance in the last Westminster election, is putting the SDLP under pressure.
In East Derry, the death of Mr Arthur Doherty, a well-known and respected Assembly member, and a stiff challenge from Sinn Féin, raises the possibility that the SDLP could lose a seat.
However, the SDLP is targeting the Strangford constituency and is hopeful of picking up a single seat, probably to the detriment of Mr Cedric Wilson of the anti-agreement Northern Ireland Unionist Party. Mr Joe Boyle was chosen to carry the SDLP's hopes, much to the chagrin of Mr Danny McCarthy, who has since threatened to quit the party and stand as an independent. The selection move is being seen as evidence of the party hierarchy asserting itself in a manner not typical of elections past.
The party is also looking at South Antrim where it believes the Alliance leader, Mr David Ford, to be in trouble. The SDLP claims it lost out on a second seat last time by some 300 to 400 votes.
Also examined closely is North Antrim, the North's largest constituency, where Mr Declan O'Loan, husband of the Police Ombudsman, is fighting to win a second seat alongside Mr Sean Farren.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone was snatched by Sinn Féin at the last Westminster election, but the SDLP feels it can pick up a second Assembly seat with good vote-management.
The same also applies in Upper Bann, where Mrs Bríd Rodgers was the sole SDLP representative last time.
The SDLP vote suffered in the last Westminster campaign as hordes of party workers headed with Mrs Rodgers for West Tyrone only to come in third behind Sinn Féin's Mr Pat Doherty. SDLP insiders say that will not happen again.