UpaI believe that nominations for the Belfast West by-election close tomorrow but there are a few declared candidates already. The seat is vacant because Gerry Adams stood down to contest the Irish General Election and you will be hard pressed to find anyone suggesting that Sinn Fein will not retain this by a comfortable margin. Paul Maskey has won the coveted nomination to be Sinn Fein's candidate and the Belfast West MLA is sure to replace his leader as the new MP on June 9th.
As for the other candidates, the SDLP, who should come second in this Nationalist area, have kept faith with Alex Attwood. He is their sole MLA in Belfast West and has stood for this Westminster seat in every election since 2001. The DUP are the only other party likely to save their deposit at this by-election and they have selected Brian Kingston as their candidate.
Here's last year's General Election and this year's Assembly result for your perusal:
By-Election Candidate | GE2010 | NIA2011 |
Paul Maskey (SF) | 71.1% | 66.1% |
Alex Attwood (SDLP) | 16.4% | 13.2% |
Brian Kingston (DUP) | 7.6% | 7.5% |
- (UUP) | 3.1% | 4.2% |
- (All) | 1.9% | 1.1% |
- (People Before Profit) | - | 4.8% |
- (Workers Party) | - | 1.7% |
- (Socialist Party) | - | 1.1% |
- (IND) | - | 0.4% |
Update (1030): Harry has informed me that nominations closed yesterday afternoon and the Statement of Persons Nominated will be published later on today.
0 comments:
Post a Comment