Trawling through the figures as you do it’s worth having a look at the combined votes of the 4 Belfast constituencies:
DUP 36,654 27%
SF 36,245 26%
SDLP 24,196 18%
All 20,358 15%
UCUNF 17,052 12%
TUV 1,856 1%
Green 1,036 1%
Ind 403 0%
Total 137,800
Unionist 40.3%, Nationalist 43.9%, Other 15.8%
A number of things are worth mentioning:
1) The Alliance advance was by no means confined to East Belfast: From 6% to 15% in Belfast South, 1% to 5% in Belfast North – Didn’t stand in West Belfast in 2005 so that’s 0 to 2%. It’s difficult to isolate with complete certainty but it looks like the advance in Belfast South came from the “Unionist” vote (Unionist vote fell 10% from 2005-10 whilst Nationalist vote fell 1%).
2) Turnout fell from 60.2% to 56.6% (not as big a fall as someother areas, although from a lower base to begin with.)
3) The Alliance performance and the Robinson fallout skews it’s historical significance but I reckon that’s the first General Election in World history in which more Belfast voters voted for Nationalist parties than for Unionist parties. Can anyone confirm?
Welsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…