I think Mark’s got some stories about the comedy of errors arising from the boundary changes which I will leave to him. But here’s a couple from the media. A friend on Facebook noted this incident the other day:
On Evening Extra Andy Martin ran us through a constituency profile of South Antrim in which he said that transfers would be crucial in deciding who was eventually elected. Now either South Antrim has been unilaterally declared the only Proportional Representation constituency …
And there’s also a reference in today’s Irish News about Paul Butler building on his success in the 2007 Assembly election. Fair enough, except with around 3000 nationalist votes left in the constituency after the export of Glenavy and Lagmore to other constituencies, the tiny isolated upper valley area of Finnis represents the only concentration of nationalist voters. The rest are dispursed through out the constituency.
In other words, Paul’s base has taken flight and his seat is all but gone next time out.
I wonder if people are leaning too much on Sammy Morse’s election profiles from 2007? It just so happens the changes have a much more profound effect in Lagan Valley than many places elsewhere…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty