Leicester South by-election date confirmed as May 5th

As expected the Leicester South by-election has been confirmed for May 5^th. The writ was moved on Tuesday which has put into place the timetable to replace the Labour MP Sir Peter Soulsby, who resigned to concentrate on his campaign to become Mayor of Leicester. Currently there are only four declared candidates for the by-election with nominations closing next Thursday. I suspect the ballot paper will be short by by-election standards given all the other elections taking place on the same day.

By-Election Candidate	2010
Jonathan Ashworth (LAB)	45.6%
Zaffur Huq (LD)	26.9%
Jane Hunt (CON)	21.4%
- (BNP)	3.0%
- (GRN)	1.6%
Abhijit Pandya (UKIP)	1.5%

As for the Belfast West, that will not be taking place on May 5^th. Sensible rumours have been going around that the Government didn't think holding the by-election on the same day as the other elections was wise given the different electoral systems used. We'll have to wait until at least June for the inevitable Sinn Fein victory.