Alliance ‘quietly confident’ of two seats in Lagan Valley

Right now there are three unionist seats — two for the DUP pair of Edwin Poots and Paul Givan and one for the UUP’s Robbie Butler.

Nationalism, meanwhile, has managed to claim one seat in four of the six elections since 1998 — including the last time around in 2017 when the SDLP’s Pat Catney made it over the line on the eighth count thanks to transfers from Alliance.

And the Alliance Party has also claimed one seat in every Assembly election since 1998, with Seamus Close and then Trevor Lunn managing to make it over the line each time.

Alliance candidate Sorcha Eastwood, however, believes her party could claim a second seat this time around following strong showings in recent elections.

“There could be a big upset,” she told the News Letter yesterday.

“We’re very well placed to take two seats in the Assembly election.”

If her party does claim a second seat this time around, with David Hunniford standing alongside Ms Eastwood, it could come at the expense of some of the most high profile unionist politicians in Northern Ireland.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey is likely to stand in Lagan Valley, alongside his party colleague and current First Minister Paul Givan, while Robbie Butler is the deputy leader of the UUP.

Ms Eastwood, however, insisted her party is not interested in pushing out rivals.

“We’re confident we’re going to do well, but it’s not about claiming scalps for us.”

She said her confidence stems from recent election results, saying: “Since the last Assembly election, and obviously we’ve increased our vote in each subsequent election.

“We topped the poll in every district electoral area at local government level in 2019, and then obviously we performed extremely well against Jeffrey Donaldson [in the in reducing his majority by up to 75%] — the biggest swing to Alliance from the DUP in Northern Ireland.”

The TUV, meanwhile, has announced the candidacy of the academic Dr William Kitchen, a 33-year-old author who is considered an expert on education, for the Lagan Valley constituency.