#bele11

Buying votes in East Belfast … at £6 a pop

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 10, 2011, 10:40 pm

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Stephen Stewart tallying East Belfast Assembly ballots - closeup

Having interviewed him up at Stormont a few weeks ago, I bumped into 18 year old Stephen Stewart again at the East Belfast Assembly count last Friday. He was completing another stage of his off-curriculum political education by tallying some of the ballot boxes along with his campaign manager. Unlike the rest of the party tally teams who were jotting down first preferences on their clipboards, Stephen and Alex only had two areas on their forms: STEWART and ALL OTHERS. …

One last hustings (#bele11) in case you can’t sleep …

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 4, 2011, 10:40 pm

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It’s the storm before the calm. It feels a bit like Slugger’s clearing out the draft folder of posts before they become irrelevant post-count when the focus switches away from the campaign and turns to the results and the consequences of the electorates’ pencil scribblings. In case Tuesday’s late night leaders’ debate whet your appetite for midnight political listening, here’s one last election treat. It’s a recording of last night’s East Belfast election hustings, held in Knock Presbyterian Church. I …

(updated) Not quite Hobson’s choice … running as an under-the-radar independent for council? #bele11 #lg11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 2, 2011, 6:49 pm

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Roy Hobson - independent council candidate in Belfast's Victoria ward

If there was ever a time to run as an independent – particularly for council – surely this was the year to get out around the streets and convince people to give new voices a chance – new voices that weren’t wedded to historic party policies, tribal politics and uniformed organisations of one for or another. Disappointingly, although Roy Hobson is running as an independent candidate for Belfast City Council in Victoria Ward, he hasn’t put any literature through the …

PUP leader Segways onto the wrong side of the law?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 29, 2011, 2:29 pm

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PUPs Brian Ervine on a Segway on an East Belfast pavement

Posters and Segway scooters. With less than a week to go until the election, candidates will have sore feet, lost weight and be counting the hours until polling closes on Thursday night at 10pm. The PUP is certainly pulling its weight when it comes to election gimmicks. Last week they unveiled a poster featuring Kristin Mackenzie – the American model/stock photo that both the DUP and UUP both used last year in rival posters – “to highlight the ongoing neglect …

Catching up with Stephen Stewart (18 year old independent) #ae11 #bele11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 22, 2011, 8:00 pm

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Stephen Stewart, 18 year old East Belfast independent standing in front of Parliament Buildings

Eighteen year old Stephen Stewart is squeezing in running as an independent candidate for East Belfast in the Assembly elections alongside his A-levels. He’s partially inspired by Martin McAuley who stood as an independent in North Belfast’s Westminster election last year and is having a crack at the Assembly this year. The whole point of me doing this is to complete the Good Friday Agreement and elect the first person from the ‘ceasefire generation’. It’s thirteen years since the signing …

Progressive Unionist Party launch manifesto with titanic pledges

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 21, 2011, 9:15 pm

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The Progressive Unionist Party launched its manifesto this morning. The party is now led by Brian Ervine who is standing for the Assembly in East Belfast while another eight candidates are running for seats on councils in Antrim, Belfast, Castlereagh, Derry, Larne and Newtownabbey. (I posted an interview with Brian Ervine back in March.) Speaking at the launch, Brian Ervine had an upbeat message. The PUP has emerged stronger and more resilient as a consequence of the crisis of 2010. …

#UTVtrip: Social media, young people and the problem of transforming politics

Mick Fealty on April 13, 2011, 10:00 am

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UTV posed an interesting question on what all this apparent commitment to social media on the part of all the parties. Sam McBride of the News Letter noted we are likely to see a fall in turn out and therefore most of the parties will be resiling to core voters even as their publicity shouts out ‘we really do care about issues’. It’s a point re-emphasised by his Irish News colleague Diana Rusk, who poses the question we’ve perennially heard …

UTV Roadtrip: Tweeting from East Belfast (#bele11) today…

Mick Fealty on April 12, 2011, 8:30 am

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Today we start the UTV Twitter Roadtrip… It culminates this evening with a small conversational group at the Park Avenue Hotel (almost booked up, but with a few waiting list places). You can follow the interviews with ordinary folk and politicians by using the #UTVtrip hashtag on Twitter… Here’s a bit of what our intention behind the project is: If you want to hook up with me during the day, you can direct message or just ping me on my …

Launching the UTV Twitter Road Shows…

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2011, 3:11 pm

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As some of you may have seen last night or on Twitter, I’ll be hosting a number of Twitter Roadshows for UTV over the next few weeks. In all there will be four of events, starting next Tuesday evening at the Park Avenue Hotel, (our initial thread on East Belfast is still rolling) where the discussion will focus on issues relating to East Belfast (hashtag: #Bele11). There are only a small number of spaces available on the night, as I’ve said …

#AE11 Open Thread: East Belfast (#bele11)

Mick Fealty on April 3, 2011, 10:37 am

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Okay, East Belfast is really interesting. Will we see two Alliance MLAs, after Naomi Long’s historic victory last year? Can Dawn Purvis hold on the seat she won against the odds four years ago without the backing of the PUP machine? What effect will Sammy Douglas have on the DUP ticket? And at Council level how will the UUP fair banking on two old stagers, Jim Rodgers and (the recently rewhipped) Ian Adamson alongside the rookie Stephen Warke. So what …