Sinn Fein and DUP dominant as election nears
Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are looking at a near-equal share of the vote as they enter the final week of campaigning for the Northern Irish Assembly elections.
An Ipsos-Mori poll places support for the DUP at 25 per cent and Sinn Fein at 22 per cent.
Commissioned by the Belfast Telegraph, the poll, the only one conducted during the campaign, also shows 20 per cent support for the SDLP, 16 per cent for Ulster Unionists and nine per cent for the Alliance.
However, voters are less than confident that the election on March 7th will see the return to power at Stormont.
Less than half thought the election would result in a working Executive and a quarter believed Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness would cooperate as first and deputy first minister.
Following ten trips to the polls since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, 61 per cent of respondents are “absolutely certain” they will vote, on a par with the 62.6 per cent turnout seen at the 2003 election.
Next week marks the third time voters have selected the 108-seat Northern Irish Assembly.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams this week said the DUP, having called an election, must accept the vote. The republicans are said to want to make power sharing work.
Both parties have seen councillors resign over the past week in protest at their supposed accommodation of the centre ground.
Davy Tweed resigned from the DUP over power sharing with Sinn Fein and Poilin Ui Cathain will remain a member of Sinn Fein but has quit her seat over the party’s decision to support the police.
