About 20 different parties and groupings will contest the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 26 November 2003. In all, 256 candidates are nominated for the poll that will elect 108 MLAs or Members of the Legislative Assembly.
However, a power-sharing executive will not be re-established at Stormont after the election. Instead, a review of the workings of the Good Friday Agreement and a further round of negotiations is expected to begin.
Below is a guide to the abbreviations being used by BBC News Online to identify the candidates in the election. These abbreviations will feature in past results tables, constituency pages and results tables.
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - AP
Community and Environmental Conservation Campaign - CECC
Conservative Party - CON
Democratic Unionist Party - DUP
Green Party - GP
Independent - IND
Independent Community - IC
Labour - LAB
Natural Law Party - NLP
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition - NIWC
Northern Ireland Unionist Party - NIUP
Pro-Agreement - PA
Progressive Unionist Party - PUP
Sinn Fein - SF
Social Democratic and Labour Party - SDLP
Socialist Environmental Alliance - SEA
Socialist Party - SP
Ulster Democratic Unionist Party - UDP (no longer exists)
Ulster Independence - UI
Ulster Independent Voice - UIV
Ulster Third Way - UTW
Ulster Unionist Party - UUP
United Kingdom Unionist Party - UKUP
United Unionist Coalition - UU COAL (formerly the UUAP)
Vote For Yourself Party - VFYP
Workers Party - WP
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