NORTHERN VOTERS go to the polls today to elect a new Assembly, local councils, and to decide the outcome of a referendum on the method for electing Westminster MPs.
Some 1,216,402 electors will choose Assembly members to fill the 108-member body at Stormont as well as the 582 council seats across the North’s 26 local councils.
Northern Ireland has 18 six-seat constituencies and both elections will be held using proportional representation.
There will also be a referendum, the first in the UK since the 1975 vote on remaining in what was then the EEC, on a proposal to change the voting system for Westminster.
The Yes lobby wants to abolish the current first-past-the-post system in favour of the alternative vote method which allows electors to express a preference by numerically ranking candidates.
Most of the focus throughout the six-week campaign has been on the elections for the Assembly which last March completed its first full term without any suspensions since the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
Party leaders last night warned against voter apathy following a campaign regarded by many as lacklustre.
The DUP and Sinn Féin are again strongly tipped to remain as the lead parties in the rival unionist and nationalist camps and to head the next power-sharing Executive.
DUP leader and outgoing First Minister Peter Robinson said: “People have the choice of whether they stay silent on this conflict between terrorism and democracy or whether they come and clearly take the side of the democrats and use their vote to show they are not prepared to go back to the days of conflict and violence”.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams also urged voters to turn out. He said the party needed “a very strong local government representation to continue our mandate in our work and local councils”.
The SDLP said: “The worst thing you can do is sit this one out”, while the Ulster Unionists, aware of the possibility of poor unionist turnout, said it was “hugely important” its supporters voted.
The last of the televised leaders’ debates on Tuesday attracted an audience of just 58,000, highlighting concerns that the totals turning out to vote in the three polls could be hit by apathy.