Voting in NI

A.L.D.A

ripplyuk wrote: »

What I mean is, Would voting for the same party on both the council and the European ballot papers increase the chances of the party I want getting into Europe?

No won't make the slightest difference. They are two totally different elections. So vote for who ever you prefer in each. (and use your transfers strategically ie who you really want 1,2, and 3 and then if considerations of voting to keep people out vote for whatever camp. )

A.L.D.A

yorkshire_lass wrote: »

Ripplyuk,

Your vote is private (unless you choose to tell someone how you voted) therefore vote for whichever candidate(s) and parties you want, in the order you want.
.

I am not so sure on that. Why are the slips you are given to vote on numbered and therefore traceable back to you? It would be easy to collect the votes for some extreme party and trace their supporters! What some consider extreme would depend on background. Of course such things never happen here!

ripplyuk

A.L.D.A wrote: »

No won't make the slightest difference. They are two totally different elections. So vote for who ever you prefer in each. (and use your transfers strategically ie who you really want 1,2, and 3 and then if considerations of voting to keep people out vote for whatever camp. )

Thanks A.L.D.A., that's cleared it up. I was hoping that was the case.
Your earlier post has been very helpful too. I'm always being told I'll 'waste' my vote if I don't go for one of the big parties. Now I'm going to vote for who I really want!

duggan1

A.L.D.A wrote: »

I am not so sure on that. Why are the slips you are given to vote on numbered and therefore traceable back to you? It would be easy to collect the votes for some extreme party and trace their supporters! What some consider extreme would depend on background. Of course such things never happen here!

Ballots are numbered to combat electoral fraud and ballots are reportedly destroyed once results are confirmed...

lazer

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

I'll be honest here and say that personally I recon if there was a referendum tomorrow there wouldn't' be a hope in hell of there being a United Ireland. I firmly believe there are a lot of people here who vote for Sinn Fein do not believe there should be a United Ireland but rather vote for them to keep someone else out or because they actually have a good councillor in the area.

Also I believe if there was a referendum then it wouldn't just be a case of "Us" voting to unite with the Rep. of Ireland, but the good folks in the south would have to have a vote on whether they actually want us, and having a lot of friends born and bred in the republic of both "persuasions" I know for a fact there are not too many down there want anything to do with us "uniting" with them as they basically don't want the hassle, or more importantly to them the cost of running this place...

Exactly - it's not going to happen in the forseeable future, so don't bother thinking about it when voting - vote for whatever party has the policies you want for a successful Northen Ireland.

I am a nationalist and if there is ever a referendum I will vote for a United Ireland, but i'm also a realist and know its not going to happen any time soon. So I am happy to vote for Unionist, nationlists or whoever i feel best reflects my views at the time of the election

Cotta

lazer wrote: »

They are supporting what the people voted for in the GFA, they have my vote anyway.
They have lost unionist votes over this (I can understand the mentality of people deciding not to vote for them as 1 member has said they would support a united Ireland - but I think it's a stupid reason to not vote them - as in the previous post - a UI is not going to happen unless the majority want it, and for every memeber of the Alliance supporting it, there would be 2 or 3 not supporting it)

They may have gained nationlist votes by saying this.

Unionist voters may feel Alliance have kicked them in the teeth. In many Unionist areas Unionist supporters have given the Alliance party their backing over pure Unionist parties with East Belfast being a prime example. This has not been reciprocated in Nationalist areas where Sinn Fein/SDLP generally romp home of course Nationalist in Unionist majority areas have voted Alliance to 'keep the other side out'.

I'm not really sure Alliance are a good alternative to our mainstream parties and I'm not convinced by NI21 either.

Cotta

Some political commentators feel the race has opened up for the third and final seat with Allister and Attwood emerging as serious contenders while Dodds and Anderson seem to be home and dry.

jenheiffer

Cotta wrote: »

Some political commentators feel the race has opened up for the third and final seat with Allister and Attwood emerging as serious contenders while Dodds and Anderson seem to be home and dry.

Anderson will top the poll,not because she is the most credible candidate but because her first preference vote will not be split so many ways. Attwood will probably do well aided by her surplus 2nd. preferences.

Dodds has given a very good account of herself on TV lately but she has well-established Nicholson and big personality, love-or-hate-him Allister to contend with.

Cotta

Allister has emerged as a serious cadidate (if he wasn't already). Third place will be between him and Attwood with the latter probably the favourite at the moment. Allister needs to crumble the UKIP vote and take a good chunk away from the DUP and he will probably need UUP voters to get him home. It's a bit more interesting to say the least.

I'm also not sorry to see the end of the nasty party aka NI21.

warmhands.coldheart

Cotta wrote: »

I'm also not sorry to see the end of the nasty party aka NI21.

Please enlighten us? I would have thought a Non-Denominational party not labelled as pro or anti union would be appealing to quite a few more forward thinking people !!