Local Elections

Absent voting in the 2019 local government election

Niall Kelly on June 18, 2019, 10:13 pm

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Figures published by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, as a result of a freedom of information request, show that the number of people who voted in the 2019 local government election by postal votes, proxy postal or proxy (herein referred to as absent voting), varied significantly across the north. If you are unable to vote in person on polling day, arrangements can be made for someone else to vote on your behalf (a proxy vote – either in person …

Centre ground parties advance and the DUP consolidate the unionist vote at the 2019 local elections

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 4, 2019, 5:26 pm

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The centre ground parties, and the Alliance Party in particular, have made significant gains at the May 2019 local elections. With all of the first preference votes now counted, the Alliance Party made the largest gain of the share of the first-preference vote, up by 4.9% from the 6.6% received in 2014 to 11.5% in this year’s poll. The Green Party more than doubled their share of the vote from 0.9% in 2014 to 2.1%, whilst People Before Profit received …

The ‘ghosting’ by unionist parties of the Irish language community

Concubhar on May 1, 2019, 11:23 am

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Conradh na Gaeilge, the indefatigible advocacy group making the case for Irish language rights in Northern Ireland, in March sent all the parties in the north a position paper and a very short questionnaire requesting them to commit support or express an opinion on three issues relevant to the Irish language in the imminent local elections. All the parties – apart from the three unionist parties, the DUP, the UUP and the TUV – responded positively to the request. Here …

Cartoon – Mine is bigger than yours

Brian Spencer on May 25, 2014, 9:34 pm

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Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Cartoon – The sectanic mill

Brian Spencer on May 22, 2014, 6:33 pm

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Slugger’s BIG Election Hangover-May 30th, 8pm, Hudson Bar.

David McCann on May 12, 2014, 8:14 pm

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With Finance and Personnel Minister Simon Hamilton MLA Slugger O’Toole and Chambré Public Affairs are very excited to invite you to our BIG Election Hangover on 30th May, 8pm, at the Hudson Bar. We have a great line up of political debate and entertainment to close out the election campaign. Finance and Personnel Minister Simon Hamilton MLA will be kicking off proceedings by giving his 2 cents worth on the forthcoming election campaign. Moving on to the impacts of …

So, you want to be a Cllr? Here’s some social media do’s and don’ts.

David McCann on May 4, 2014, 2:30 pm

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This round of local elections were interesting for me as I watched in January my twitter feed being swamped with tweets of election hopefuls announcing their candidacy for the various wards in the upcoming election. Ever since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, candidates have looked to social media to promote themselves and their issues. Now, the impact of this is debatable, I think that for local government elections, social media is a nice stocking filler for candidates. It …

Election Posters Everywhere, but very few seem to be staying up in some areas

David McCann on April 24, 2014, 8:45 am

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I have always resented people trying to infer whether it is through silly diagrams trying to promote how progressive they are or commentators telling me to return leaflets put through my door by a legitimate political party. My immediate reaction is, thanks, but I can really make up my own mind without you telling me who to vote for. Likewise, I get equally annoyed when I see tweets like this issued from a political party so frustrated that their posters …

What makes a good local Councillor?

David McCann on April 13, 2014, 12:40 pm

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Over the coming weeks hundreds of people will be seeking a job with an interview panel of thousands asking questions about their ability to deal with local problems, create jobs and run local services. But, this year will be a little bit different as local councils take on a lot more powers. Speaking about the changes to local councils the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, Derek McCallan, made the point that as a community we need …

Can Cameron get beyond “jejune policy and serial incoherence”?

Mick Fealty on May 8, 2012, 10:18 am

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I offer this as an addendum to Turgon’s piece… First, Matthew Parris in the Times on Saturday… To Mr Cameron’s critics first. Spare us, please, every sentence with the words, “bedrock”, “core”, and “traditional supporters”, abiding values or “traditional conservatism” in it. What do these words mean – what in terms of doable legislation that this government is not already enacting or committed to? Many of the opinions or attitudes we are won’t to attribute to “core Tory supporters” are …

All politics is local: links and open thread

John Ó Néill on April 25, 2011, 10:10 am

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With a broad slate and geographically dispersed contests, it might be a great help if people highlight local battles worth watching in the council elections. I’ve linked all the councils and local electoral areas at the end of this post for ease of reference (it will be useful if people name the one they are putting a flag over in comments, obviously). Some of you might remember eleven in 11? Under the Review of Public Administration (RPA) there would now have been only eleven councils, so it is worth bearing in mind …

Three ballots on the same day

Paul Evans on October 15, 2010, 11:50 am

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So despite Peter Robinson’s concerns that it will confuse voters if the ballot on voting reform, it seems that the AV Referendum will happen on the same day as both the Assembly Elections and the local council elections – 5th May 2011. Following the totally unpredictable SNAFU around local government reform, readers will recall that the plans to condense the current twenty six local authorities down to eleven super councils next year has meant that Councillors in NI have been …