It's in the post

by Ken Reid, Political Editor

Published Thursday, 29 April 2010

A little bird tells me the figures for postal votes will be released shortly.

In 2005 there were over 34,000 granted but I'm told the figure will be well down this time.

Indeed, I'm reliably informed, they could be down by 50 per cent in some constituencies.

There is little doubt the electoral office has been more rigorous in enforcing the rules for postal votes.

A very senior Sinn Fein politician said to me this afternoon that in England they are encouraging people to vote in all sorts of ways yet the opposite is happening here.

Yet others will welcome a tightening up of the system.

Whether it will have an overall effect is another matter.

Meanwhile, the North Antrim election debate proved to be as lively as expected.

It is well worth watching.

Naturally Jim Allister and Ian Paisley junior knocked lumps out of each other.

You will have to decide yourself who won.

There wasn't much love lost on the other side of the house either.

A colleague said it reminded him of the old days.

Judge for yourself.

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Comments

3 Comments

Amanda Martin in Ballymoney wrote (1,116 days ago):

Politicians are feeding us spin (for want of a more earthy description) the world is going to hell and they want us to focus on them. They grin. They roll out their wives and children. They are shafting us and we know it. We are afraid. We are loosing our jobs, running out of money. Our health service is disintegrating. Our lives are disintegrating. Our neighbourhoods are disintegrating. Do you trust any of the politicans on offer? Think on this. They have been feathering their own nests and you won't be able to pay to keep yours for long. Vote with your feet and don't vote for any of them. That should give power back to the people. The people who know what's needed. What's important and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage something before they run us into the ground and then spit on our graves.

socialgandhi.com in Northern Ireland wrote (1,116 days ago):

Some classics last night: ''The Good Lord in his mercy gave you two ears and one mouth and you should use them in that proportion" IPJ Classic "the only weapon I need against Ian Paisley Jr is truth" JA North Antrim people are looking for an end to the Paisley dynasty. They don't want to see it passed on to the flawed second generation". JA (ouch!) Ah the good old days... and a score draw I would say

Terry in belfast wrote (1,117 days ago):

After last nights slanging match I know now when I look out the window as the politicans roam looking for that elusive creature here in the north "the floating voter" I,ll at least know were the term dogs in the street came from. The rottweilers truely lost thier tempers at times and had to be brought to heal by a skillfull Jim Dougal. A bit of reseach into this animal lead me to this. "A multi-faceted herding and stock protection dog (for this read the unionist people and the union) it is also capable of working all kinds of livestock under a variety of conditions" (for this read unionist people and various forced u turns in policy) food for thought Ian jnr. Heres another piece for the gallant jim allister. "The American Kennel Club says it is basically a confident dog with a self-assured aloofness that does not lend itself to immediate and indiscriminate friendships" Enough said.

Ken Reid’s UTV blogs

It's in the post

A little bird tells me the figures for postal votes will be released shortly.