91热爆

Lozenge Corner

• Mark Devenport
• 8 Mar 07, 10:21 AM

An hour and a half to go until 91热爆 Northern Ireland's rolling election coverage begins, and Professor Sidney Elliot and myself are engaged in our pre match warm up. No press ups or jogging on the spot, in my case it's a second late breakfast, whilst Sidney is poring over his paperwork.

One thing we do have in common is tickly throats - Sidney is recovering from losing his voice after too much lecturing, whilst I think I am on the brink of a cold. So forget the analysis, the turnout and the quotas - watch out for the lozenges being surreptitiously sucked to keep us going through two days of live broadcasting. We shall try not to pass on our germs to our fellow conspirator Mark Carruthers.

At this stage all information is pretty sketchy. Last night Sinn Fein sources put turnout in Mid Ulster at 70% and in Foyle at 68%. Reports from eastern parts are a bit lower than that, but voting still seems to have held up despite the allure of Manchester Utd and Celtic. Something along the lines of 2003 election's 64% turnout would not be surprising.

The SDLP appear chipper this morning, especially about the chances of their Strangford candidate Joe Boyle and their Newry and Armagh bid for two seats. The DUP also sound fairly content.

91热爆 News Online will have all the latest results and will also be streaming live our radio and tv election programmes. The address is bbc.co.uk/nirelandnews. The colour at Ballymena, where both Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness's votes are being counted, should be fun to watch.