Northern Ireland: Hustings hullabaloo

On Tuesday 4 November 2003 the Electoral Office announced that nominations were officially closed for the upcoming elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Northern Ireland is gearing up for elections

There are 108 seats at Stormont up for grabs with 256 candidates representing a myriad of parties from the Socialist Environmental Alliance to the Vote For Yourself Party and all points in between.

Voters cannot complain about a lack of choice.

Concerns about a lack of polling stations in rural areas in previous elections has resulted in a big increase in voting venues this time around.

There will be 30 new polling stations, and 300 extra polling booths.

This should help presiding officers deal with the queues of voters that formed at stations in the past.

Popping out to vote in your lunch hour should no longer mean having to miss out on your sandwiches.

Campaigns gear up

Meanwhile, the campaigns of the Big Four parties have been moving into high gear with policy launches, personal attacks, and hustings hullabaloo on a grand scale.

The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, accused his opponents of engaging in fairytales.

The Democratic Unionist, Gregory Campbell, accused the Ulster Unionists of having thrown their campaign together in a shoddy manner.

The SDLP issued a poster featuring a photograph of the DUP leader, Rev Ian Paisley, and his son, Ian Junior, with the words, 'Two Good Reasons to Vote SDLP'.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams accused the DUP of trying to con the electorate by calling for renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Former Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly

As E-Day approaches on 26 November 2003, we can look forward to increasingly frantic electioneering.

The results will decide not just the make-up of the Assembly but the strengths of the parties as they enter yet another round of negotiations.

Politics Show

This week on the Politics Show from Northern Ireland we continue our series of pre-election debates with representatives from the parties.

Jim Fitzpatrick hosts Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly and Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionists.

Join the Politics Show with Jim Fitzpatrick on BBC One on Sundays at Noon.

Send us your views on the reply form below.

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