The Ulster Unionist Party has changed and is changing, according to one of the party's candidates in South Belfast. In a speech delivered on Saturday, Dr Esmond Birnie said: "Whatever mistakes unionism is perceived to have made in the past, the Ulster Unionist Party has changed and is changing. I am proud to be amongst the new unionists.
"The surest and best way to secure the Union is to create a Northern Ireland where people of all the traditions can feel happy, comfortable and at home."
Dr Birnie (33), is a lecturer in economics and is running in the middle-class South Belfast constituency with Mr Jim Clark and Mr Michael McGimpsey, both councillors.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein candidate in South Antrim, Mr Martin Meehan, has welcomed an electoral voting pact with local SDLP candidate, Mr Thomas Burns. He would be seeking to cement it in a meeting with Mr Burns's running-mate, Mr Donovan McClelland, later this week.
"It is essential that nationalists maximise their representation in the Assembly in order to prevent it turning into another Stormont," he said.
The overall policy of the SDLP is to urge voters to continue their preferences for pro-Agreement candidates, without specifying which ones, and the party has said it expects them to transfer to the UUP and Alliance as well as Sinn Fein.
Also campaigning over the weekend, the Workers' Party candidate in West Tyrone, Mr Tommy Owens, warned voters to avoid parties like the DUP and Sinn Fein which were trying to use marches and parades to heighten sectarian tensions in the run-up to the election.