NORTH:POLLING IN all 18 Northern constituencies begins today at 7am and continues until 10pm.
Some 1,169,184 electors are registered and entitled to vote at 624 polling stations across Northern Ireland.
After polling, the 1,512 ballot boxes will be taken to eight count centres where, for the first time, counting will begin immediately.
According to the electoral office in Belfast, it is hoped that all 18 constituencies will declare before 3am, subject to recounts.
Unlike all other elections in Northern Ireland, Westminster polls are carried out using the first-past-the-post system where electors place an X against the name of one candidate they want to support. In all other elections, proportional representation is used.
A byelection in Castlereagh is also being held to select a councillor to replace Iris Robinson.
Votes cast in the West Belfast and South Belfast constituencies will be counted at the King’s Hall in the city. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is well placed to defend his seat in West Belfast while the SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell is fighting to hold the seat he won in 2005. Of the other two Belfast constituencies, North Belfast will be counted in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, while East Belfast will be counted in Newtownards, Co Down.
In the former seat, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds is fighting a growing challenge from Sinn Féin while DUP leader Peter Robinson is facing significant campaigns from both Alliance and the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists.
The Newtownabbey count will also feature the contests in East Antrim, where the DUP’s Sammy Wilson is well placed to defend his seat, and South Antrim, where DUP MP William McCrea is fighting to see off a determined challenge from Sir Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist leader. The Newtownards centre will also see the votes counted in the North Down seat where Lady (Sylvia) Hermon is defending her seat, this time as an Independent, and in the Strangford constituency which used to be held by Iris Robinson.
In Ballymena, Co Antrim, votes cast in Mid Ulster and North Antrim will be counted. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin is a clear favourite in Mid Ulster while the North Antrim contest sees two clear rivals in Ian Paisley jnr and Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister contesting the seat.
Counting in the West Tyrone seat will take place in Omagh, Co Tyrone. Votes cast in Fermanagh South Tyrone, a key seat where Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew is defending her seat, will also be counted.
Derry will see counting in the Foyle constituency, which is being defended by former SDLP leader Mark Durkan, and East Derry, in which sitting MP Gregory Campbell of the DUP is fighting the TUV’s William Ross.
The count centre in Banbridge, Co Down, will see counting in two constituencies – Upper Bann, which is held by the DUP’s David Simpson, and Newry and Armagh, where Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy is expected to retain his seat.
In Lisburn, Co Antrim, counting will take place in the Lagan Valley seat where sitting MP Jeffrey Donaldson is fighting the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists’ Daphne Trimble. Also counted there will be the South Down seat where SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie is facing a challenge from Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane.