Election 2023 - Mid and East Antrim: DUP will be vying for top spot again... though some 'unaware election is happening'

In 2019, Unionist parties here took 66% of first preference votes, with 8% going to SDLP/SF, and 16% to Alliance.

But five years earlier, the picture was this: Unionist parties 72%, SDLP/SF 11%, Alliance 9%.

The upshot in terms of the number of councillors elected in 2019 was as follows, with the loss or gain in brackets:

DUP: 15 (-1)

UUP: 7 (-2)

Alliance: 7 (+4)

TUV: 5 (+/-0)

Ind: 3 (+1)

Sinn Fein: 2 (-1)

SDLP: 1 (+/-0)

UKIP: 0 (-1)

DUP Carrick candidate Billy Ashe said one of the problems he's encountered is the number of people "who turn round and say to you they didn't know there's an election coming up".

"I'm not sure if that's our fault, or the media's fault," he said. "But I'm surprised how many people have said that.

"Obviously people are concerned about what is happening – or not happening – at Stormont, and about what they're hearing when they're listening to the news about cuts.

"People think that if the DUP come back into Stormont it's going to change all that. They're surprised when I say that, whether the DUP is there or not, the Barnett formula is the Barnett formula, that's the money they have, so they're going to have to make these cuts.

"It's because I don't think that's the impression coming across other news media."

He said people are "bamboozled" by the Protocol, but he tries to explain it at a local level, saying that there is a risk the council will have to foot an annual bill of £1.5m for staff handling red tape at Larne Harbour.

He also questioned how well Alliance will fare.

In his own Carrick Castle ward, Alliance could have been in with a shot of two seats he said, based on its 2019 performance, but opted to field only one candidate – a sign perhaps, that unionist voters will "not afford them the luxury" of transfer votes this time.

One of the UUP challengers of 2023 is Roy Beggs – the veteran UUP figure who had been Stormont's longest-serving unionist MLA, beginning in 1998 right up to when he lost his seat in the 2022 Assembly election.

He is vying for a comback to politics in the Larne Lough ward.

As to what he is hearing on the doors he said: "I'm picking up frustration with the fact we don't have devolved decision-making.

"A range of cuts are coming. I think that'll magnify people's disenchantment with the fact politicians are not being accountable and not taking the decisions.

"It really is quite unparalleled such decisions are not being taken by politicians, who [have] abdicated responsibility."

When it comes to the idea these cuts would be made anyway, he said: "What I'd say is people are experiencing pain because of financial mismanagement over a number of years.

"Certainly since 2007 it's been either DUP or Sinn Fein who have been taking financial decisions, and avoided taking difficult decisions."

One quirk of this area is the many small parties and independents which often flourish here.

There were three independents elected last time, drawing 8.2% of the first preference vote, whilst fringe unionist parties (PUP, Democrats and Veterans, and UKIP) picked up 1.2%.

This time though there are only two independents standing, and one PUP man.

The TUV traditionally performs well too: in both 2014 and 2019 the party took 15% of first-preference votes and came back with five seats.

The party ran nine candidates in 2019, but this time is running 10.

By contrast, the DUP stood 19 candidates in 2019, and this time the DUP is standing 17 candidates.

The UUP meanwhile stood 12 and came back with seven last time, is again standing 12.

Christopher Jamieson, TUV candidate for Braid, is vying to keep his seat.

He said voters have raised Jim Allister's stand against "the Windsor Whitewash" with him, adding: "What I'm getting on the doors is people aren't wanting [a return] to powersharing until we're 100% back within the UK."

On the UUP, he said: "There have been people who wouldn't be voting Ulster Unionist but would normally transfer to them, have said they'll not transfer to Ulster Unionists again.

"But obviously we're encouraging [voters] to go down the unionist line as their conscience sees fit."

Mid And East Antrim Borough Council

Ballymena

Matthew Armstrong (TUV), Colin Crawford (UUP), Reuben Glover (DUP), John Hyland (Alliance), Bréanainn Lyness (SF), Lawrie Philpott (DUP), Rodney Quigley (Ind), Eugene Reid (SDLP), Andrew Wright (DUP)

Bannside

Ian Friary (SF), Timothy Gaston (TUV), Jack Gibson (Alliance), Thomas John Gordon (DUP), Anna Henry (TUV), Tyler Marcus Anthony Hoey (DUP), Stewart McDonald (TUV), Jackson Bolton Minford (UUP), Morgan Murphy (SDLP)

Braid

Beth Adger (DUP), Alan Barr (UUP), Chelsea Harwood (Alliance), Christopher Jamieson (TUV), William McCaughey (DUP), Julie Philpott (DUP), Archie Rae (SF), Keith James Turner (UUP), Matthew Warwick (TUV)

Carrick Castle

Billy Ashe (DUP), Cheryl Brownlee (DUP), Bethany Ferris (UUP), Lauren Gray (Alliance), Frances Margaret Henderson (TUV), Jenny Hutchinson (Green), Jim McCaw (PUP), John McDermott (DUP), Robin Stewart (UUP)

Coast Road

Eddie Alcorn (Green), Andrew Clarke (DUP), James McKeown (SF), Maureen Morrow (UUP), Gerardine Marie Mulvenna (Alliance), Angela Smyth (DUP), Niamh Spurle (Alliance), Wes Stevenson (TUV), Olivia Swan (UUP)

Knockagh

Marc Neill Collins (DUP), Bobby Hadden (Ind), Peter Johnston (DUP), Gary William McCabe (UUP), Aaron Skinner (Alliance), James Strange (TUV), Noel Williams (Alliance), Andrew Wilson (UUP)

Larne Lough

Roy Beggs (UUP), James Carson (UUP), Ronnie Donnell (TUV), Maeve Donnelly (Alliance), Robert Logan (Alliance), Gregg McKeen (DUP), Philip George Randle (Green), Paul Reid (DUP)