Assembly nominations closing

Nominations for the North's Assembly Elections will close today, effectively sounding the starting pistol in the race for Stormont seats.

Two days of nominations for the North's 18 constituencies will end this afternoon with unionist and nationalist parties expected to focus on the fight for power-sharing ministries in a future executive.

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists will be fighting to hold on to their position as the biggest Northern Ireland Assembly grouping.

However, Sinn Féin is also hoping to make significant gains and be in a position to become the largest party within the next five years.

Reg Empey’s Ulster Unionists and Mark Durkan’s SDLP are the main challengers to the DUP and Sinn Féin respectively.

However the election will also see a number of smaller unionist parties opposed to the DUP potentially sharing power with Sinn Féin and disaffected republican candidates critical of Gerry Adams’ party’s endorsement of the PSNI also stand.

Republican Sinn Féin, a breakaway party which split from Sinn Féin 21 years ago, will today unveil the 11 candidates it will field in the Assembly Election.

On the unionist side, UK Unionist leader Bob McCartney is planning to stand in six constituencies and run candidates in at least another eight.

David Forde’s cross-community Alliance Party will be defending six seats while the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party will be fighting to hold on to the East Belfast seat of its former leader David Ervine who died last month.

With independent candidates also running, a number of other parties are also hoping to make a breakthrough including the Conservatives, the Green Party and the UK Independence Party.

In the last Assembly election in 2003, more than 250 candidates competed for the 108 seats at Stormont.

Before the close of nominations it looked as if this year’s contest on March 7 would have an even bigger field.