A really interesting article by Sam McBride in the News Letter today highlight the number of MLAs standing down at the next election.
In his piece McBride points out;
Almost 30 per cent of MLAs elected in the last Assembly election are not even standing for election next year – and the turnover in Assembly politicians could end up being as high as 40 per cent.
But goes on to say;
On top of that, several MLAs who stand for re-election are likely to lose their seats and some are very likely to lose their seats due to changing levels of support for parties or in some cases because they have moved party.
Taken together, that means that as many as 40 per cent of the MLAs elected in 2011 will not be in the Assembly after May – a dramatic change
Change by party;
The largest turnover of MLAs is in the SDLP, where half of the Assembly team elected in 2011 will not even be standing again.
Among the major parties, the lowest turnover of MLAs is in the DUP, where just 13 per cent of those elected in the last Assembly election are confirmed to not be running again.
Separately, Sinn Fein has the highest number of co-options during the current Assembly mandate, having replaced MLAs with another individual on a total of eight occasions.
David McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
