The SDLP will not renegotiate the Good Friday agreement or allow any of its protections to be undermined, deputy leader Brid Rodgers said last night (Tuesday).
Mrs Rodgers was responding to comments from the DUP's Gregory Campbell about renegotiation.
She said that Mr Campbell had confirmed what people already knew - that the DUP was out to wreck the agreement.
"If the DUP get a majority of unionist assembly seats, they will use this to block the election of a first and deputy first minister and try to force a renegotiation of the agreement," she said.
"The DUP's position is a matter of record. They want to scrap the North/South Ministerial Council, which they boycotted in government. They want to undo the protections in the assembly that prevent majority rule. And they want to abolish the inclusive executive, which brings together nationalist, unionist and republicans working together on a common agenda.
"In short the DUP say that what they want is renegotiation of the agreement but in fact their agenda is to destroy it. The SDLP will not renegotiate the agreement."
Earlier this week Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey said the DUP was grappling with a split in its ranks.
Sir Reg said comments by William Hay that the DUP would sit down and do business with Sinn Féin pointed to the political reality which the UUP recognised many years ago.
"What clearer evidence do we need that the DUP is in disarray with some prominent figures now moving closer to the UUP position? We all know they are dealing with Sinn Féin every day of the week at council and assembly level," Sir Reg said.
But the DUP's Sammy Wilson said Sir Reg's claims were the ramblings of a desperate man whose party was staring political oblivion in the face.
"Reg knows all about splits. His UUP has more factions than it has members of parliament," Mr Wilson said.
He added that the DUP's position was clear - it would not be voting to put Sinn Féin into power.
Ulster Unionist Alex Kane predicted last night that the DUP would have an uphill struggle to overtake the UUP.
Mr Kane, who was addressing Fermanagh/South Tyrone Unionist Association, said: "Assuming that the unionist bloc in the assembly will remain somewhere between 58 and 60 seats, it means that the DUP has to add between 9 and 11 seats to its 1998 tally of 20 seats. In other words it has to increase its assembly representation by about a third.
"My own instincts, given the vagaries of PR, the effect of smaller unionist parties and independents and personality issues in each constituency, are that the DUP will not succeed in their task. I still believe that the UUP will emerge as the largest unionist party."
But Mr Kane warned party leader David Trimble: "A large majority of UUP members continue to support and respect David Trimble. That doesn't mean that they like being left in the dark. Leave the advisers behind for a while (some of whom seem to have little or no knowledge of the party he leads, let alone contact with its members) and spend more time on the stump.'
