Teens rush to join vote register

The NI electorate now stands at almost 1.5m

A record number of 17-year-olds in Northern Ireland have registered to vote, the Electoral Office has said.

Chief Electoral Officer Douglas Bain said numbers in that age group on the register had risen from 244 last year to 7,738.

The new figures, published on Monday, show an electorate of 1,142,547, an increase of 16,568 since last year.

The electorate increased in all 18 constituencies by an average of 920 electors.

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The largest shift was in Foyle with an increase of 1,793 and the smallest was 159 in Belfast West.

The new figures include more than 31,000 people who were not on the register last year.

Anyone who will be 18 before 1 December 2010 is eligible to register, although they will not be able to vote until they reach that age.

Mr Bain said he was particularly pleased to see the huge increase in the number of younger people now registered.

"This is largely due to our schools initiative and I applaud the help we have received from the principals and staff of almost all the 143 schools we visited between the end of August and mid November," he said.

"Without their assistance these results could not have been achieved."