Donaldson makes plea to unionist non-voters to get registered – warning that a SF victory will be used as a springboard to a border poll

The election will be on May 5, and is expected to be a tight race between Sinn Fein and the DUP to see which party emerges as the largest – and thus gets the right to choose a First Minister.

In a statement released this evening just ahead of his appearance at an anti-Protocol rally in Ballymoney, the DUP leader said: “In just over 40 days the people will vote in the NI Assembly election. It is the most important election in a generation and will decide the future direction of Northern Ireland.

“Our slogan is ‘Moving Forward Together’, because Northern Ireland and unionism will only move forward when we work together.

“The Protocol is an existential threat to our place in the United Kingdom. It must be replaced by arrangements that restore our place within the UK internal market and which can command the support of unionists as well as nationalists.

“Moving forward together also means unionism moving forward together in opposition to the Protocol. The progress we have made so far has only been because of a united stand across unionism.

“Splits and division only give succour to those who want to see unionism weakened.”

He recapitulated his opposition to the Protocol, saying that it is “hurting everyone” and is hampering efforts to “tackle the cost-of-living crisis”.

He concluded: “We don’t just need to see action in London and Brussels. Moving forward together means unionists registering to vote, using their vote and transferring to other pro-Union candidates.”

He said that a victory for “those who want to take Northern Ireland out of the Union will undoubtedly be used as a catalyst to take forward plans for a border poll”.

In February, the Irish News ran an opinion poll in conjunction with the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool which predicted the following first-preference vote split:

Sinn Fein – 23.2%

DUP – 19.4%

Alliance – 15.6%

UUP – 14%

SDLP – just under 10%

The fieldwork was done by a firm called SMR Belfast, based on a sample of 1,002 people between January 25 and February 7 – meaning most of the work would have been done before the DUP decided to pull First Minister Paul Givan out of the Executive on February 4.

The Irish News says its margin of error was 3.1%.

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