In parallel with the real Assembly election, on Thursday Methodist College ran a mock poll using the real Belfast South candidates and an electorate made up of pupils in Forms 1-4.
Originally intended to be an online/electronic ballot, technology gremlins intervened [Ed – a lesson for us all] but like a real polling station, they stayed open and reverted to paper ballots (though didn’t have to run it out of the boot of a teacher’s car).
As part of the citizenship curriculum, pupils had mocked up posters for the candidates and some of the candidates (or their representatives) had visited the school in recent days.
I visited the school at lunchtime – one of the peak polling times – and caught up with Mr Foster, Adam and Jack.
This evening, the pupils counted the ballots and in double-quick time declared six candidates elected. Election anoraks can pour over detailed charts of the results.
- Paula Bradshaw (Alliance)
- Emma Little Pengelly (DUP)
- Clare Bailey (Green Party)
- Duncan Morrow (Alliance)
- Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (Sinn Féin)
- Christopher Stalford (DUP)
The school’s pupils do not all live within the Belfast South constituency, and none of the 11-15 year olds are on the electoral register. So there’s not much that can be read into the results. Other than to be impressed with the pupils’ and staffs’ enthusiasm and attitude that put the poll in place and worked as a team to get the result out so fast.
Forms1-4 @MethodyBelfast #southbelfast results: Bradshaw,Pengelly,Bailey, Morrow,Stalford+OMuilleoir elected #ae16 pic.twitter.com/g8moccuWQx
— Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) May 5, 2016
Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.