ON Thursday, North Belfast voters will elect just five MLAs from a total of 14 candidates in what is expected to be a hotly-contested Assembly election.
One of the most deprived constituencies in the North, North Belfast has the highest unemployment rate and issues such as the cost of living crisis, health service and education have been the main issues raised about in our pre-election interviews with candidates.
Last time out, DUP and Sinn Féin both secured two seats each, with the other going to the SDLP’s Nichola Mallon.
In 2017, the DUP suffered a high-profile loss in Nelson McCausland, and despite the combined unionist share of the vote being slightly higher than the combined nationalist vote, nationalist parties won three out of the five seats.
Nationalists have actually held three seats in the north of the city since 2003.
We start with Sinn Féin and two incumbent MLA’s are hoping to retain their seats in the shape of Gerry Kelly – first elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly as an MLA in 1998 – and Carál Ní Chuilín, who has been an MLA since 2007.
For the DUP, it is all change after former MLAs Paula Bradley and William Humphrey both decided not to seek re-election.
They will be replaced on the ballot paper by Brian Kingston and Phillip Brett, who are elected councillors and party group leaders in Belfast City Council and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council respectively.
Both men have never stood for Assembly election before, so will new faces appeal to voters?
The SDLP candidate is the party's Deputy Leader Nichola Mallon, who served as Infrastructure Minister in the last Assembly term.
Pre-election polls have Alliance well-fancied to increase their vote across the North, which may give their North Belfast candidate, Nuala McAllister a chance of a seat.
Last time out, Sinn Féin's Carál Ní Chuilín was elected on the sixth count, just 560 votes ahead of Ms McAllister.
The Alliance representative also polled 4,824 votes in the General Election of 2019, so growing numbers would suggest she has a good chance of nicking a seat.
Elsewhere, Green Party Deputy Leader Mal O'Hara and People Before Profit's Fiona Ferguson, both councillors, are hoping to offer that alternative middle-ground vote on election day.
Former PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston is back in politics, this time with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
PUP leader Billy Hutchinson and Ron McDowell (Traditional Unionist Voice) complete the Unionist representation and it remains to be seen if all three really appeal to Unionist voters enough to trouble the DUP seats.
Lily Kerr is the Workers' Party candidate, and following a messy split last year has seen several former election candidates denounce its platform. Both factions claim to be the legitimate heirs to the Workers’ Party name and it is unclear which faction its traditional vote will stick with.
Aontú are represented by Sean Mac Niocaill in their first Assembly election foray, with the party founded in 2019 after its leader, Peadar Tóibín, left Sinn Féin over its stance on abortion. Aontú stood two candidates in the Belfast City Council Election that year but received just over 1,600 votes after transfers. It received a similar number of votes in the 2019 Westminster Election.
The list of candidates for North Belfast is completed by Independent candidate, Stafford Ward.
