I find the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey but doesn’t that fact that party political support, especially for the bigger parties, is so wide off voting behaviour leave a lot of questions? Here are the NILT percentage figures with the actual results in the 2011 Assembly elections in brackets beside them. DUP 17 (30), Sinn Fein 12 (26), UUP 10 (13.2), SDLP 13 (14.2), Alliance 8 (7.7), Others 2 (7.9). OK, the figures aren’t strictly comparable with an election because in NILT 37% didn’t choose any of the parties, and the percentage of those expressing a preference for the named parties only adds up to 62%. In an election the percentages apply only to those who actually voted and therefore add up to 100%, not 62. Even so is the SDLP really level pegging with Sinn Fein as these results suggest? If so Alasdair McDonnell will be pleased and his big challenge is to get his hidden voters out. Other comparables, like Alliance closing in on the UUP and the SDLP close to the UUP, seem in line with election and polling trends. ark.ac.uk/nilt/2012/Political_Attitudes/POLPART2.html
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 07:08:29 +0000
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