Castlereagh and the vacant council seat

Iris resigned from
 Castlereagh Council

Well, its going to be a by-election for Iris Robinson's seat in Castlereagh Borough Council.

Councillors tonight voted to hold a by-election to fill the seat, which was left vacant by the resignation of Iris Robinson. The DUP put up a candidate for co-option but two objections scuppered that plan. A by-election will cost upwards £30,000.

Will be interesting to see the turn out. Not sure if anyone but a DUP member will win. However, the actual voting numbers will make interesting reading.

It will break the UUP by-election record, but i don't think there is much that can be done.

Lurgan spades or broad smiles - The Craigavon By-election

Today (13 Jan 2010) is by-election day in Lurgan for Craigavon Borough Council. The electorate is 16,403.

The runners are

• Jo-Anne Dobson (UUP)
• David Calvert (TUV)
• Liam Mackle (Sinn Fein)
• Pat McDade (SDLP)

The DUP did not put forward a candidate.

From what I hear the main contenders for the post will be the UUP and the TUV. Though under the voting system of Proportional Representation - Single Transferable Vote (PR-STV), it might be interesting to see where the Sinn Fein and SDLP votes go, if they are eliminated.

As the DUP do not have a candidate then there will be no possibility of a Dromore by-election result, per se. But it would bolster the UUP if they won.

It will be interesting to see the number of first preference votes for the TUV, whether they win or not. It would begin to show the lay of the land for the other Unionist parties on what to expect from Unionist grassroots.

The DUP will be looking on in interest, whatever the result. The strength of the TUV vote could be a sounding board for David Simpson MP (DUP) on the strength of feeling in the Lurgan area of the Upper Bann constituency.

The count will take place tomorrow, Thursday 14 January. A source (yup, i do indeed have some. I feel like a journalist now!!) has told me that the expected turnout is around 30%, and that to count should be over in the early morning (or at least a good idea of who will win the council seat.)