Andrew Madden
Opinion Election briefing: From poster problems and a pinch of salt, to ‘hypocritical’ buses
Northern Ireland's Assembly electoral system is a tad complicated, to say the least. We use the proportional representation, single transferable vote system. So, on the ballot paper, you list your choice of candidates in order of preference. Beside the name of your first preference on the ballot paper you put a '1', followed by '2' , '3' and so on beside your next picks. That's why you'll see election posters in areas where there are two candidates from one party running asking for you to vote 1 and 2 beside their names. In North Down, however, Conservative and Unionist candidate Matthew Robinson seems to have made a bit of a mistake.
