The quota system for Northern Ireland's police service should be abandoned, the Alliance Party has said ahead of this month's elections.

Launching its manifesto for the November 26 poll, the party said the 50:50 recruitment quota for Catholic and Protestant recruits should be replaced.

Instead the cross-community party said it wanted to see a fairer system of affirmative action.

"Alliance has opposed the use of 50:50 quotas since the day the Patten Recommendations were published," said a party spokesman.

"The creation of a representative police service is something that is central to the new beginning of policing.

"However, Alliance has never believed that rigid quotas are the way to achieve it. Quotas are divisive as the place labels onto officers, discriminatory as they detract from the merit principle, and illegal."

The party also called for the phased return of power from Westminster back to Stormont over judicial and policing issues.

It also demanded the creation of hate crime laws in Northern Ireland and a charter of freedom from sectarianism.

On core issues the party wanted to abolish the 11-plus and replace it with a common middle school curriculum.

Alliance candidates will, along with other parties, be campaigning for the scrapping of tuition fees and establishing free personal care for the elderly.

And it will support calls for a national stadium for Northern Ireland.

The biggest issue, it warned, would be ensuring the assembly actually meets and that a devolved government is formed in the days after November 26.

"This election is not about yet another referendum on the border. It is, in fact, about electing an assembly that will work together, in the spirit of the agreement, for the good of the entire community," said party leader David Ford.