POLLING began at 7 a.m. today throughout Northern Ireland in a controversial election whose outcome remains unpredictable after a desultory three week campaign, that failed to excite public interest.
Although the election is designed as a gateway to historic all party negotiations due to start on June 10th, it has been dogged by confusion over the novel voting system and uncertainty about the talks.
Almost 1.2 million people are entitled to vote in the 18 constituencies, in an exercise intended to provide the pool of delegates for all party talks and the membership of a 110 seat deliberative forum with no legislative powers.
A total of 23 parties is contesting the election, and voters are required simply to place a single X on the ballot paper beside the name of the party they support. This is the first time Northern electors have been asked to choose a party rather than individual candidates.
The various parties have nominated almost 900 candidates on constituency lists, and each constituency will return five delegates, chosen on the basis of a party's electoral support. The 10 parties gaining the largest aggregate vote across all the constituencies will each be entitled to two extra delegates, picked from the regional, or "topping up" lists, which they have submitted.
Polling stations will close at 10 p.m. The count will begin tomorrow morning at nine separate regional centres, and should be completed by late evening with the announcement of the names of the 110 delegates elected.
Between then and June 10th, each successful party will be invited to nominate, from among its elected delegates, a team to participate in the negotiations.
Canvassers have reported, right. up to the eve of polling day, that there is widespread confusion about the voting system and the turnout could fall well below the 60-70 per cent expected in general elections.
This is an election which the nationalist community did not, want, and which its representatives have depicted as merely an obstacle on the way to the all important negotiations on June 10th.
It has thrown up sharp divisions among unionists, with the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), in particular, fearing that the small pro Union parties may cause a "shredding" of the unionist vote.
Unofficial sampling of the unionist electorate has shown a strong swing to the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and there is speculation that the contest to top the poll could be between the DUP and the SDLP.
If the UUP is pushed into third place, there could be political consequences for its leader, Mr David Trimble, who will be seen as having made serious miscalculations and tactical errors in an election which he himself had pressed the British government to hold.
Sinn Fein has mounted a vigorous campaign, reflecting its anxiety to demonstrate the legitimacy of its electoral mandate, which it will then use to argue its democratic right to participate in the talks, whether or not there is a restoration of the IRA ceasefire.
The Alliance Party has also campaigned energetically on its, platform of non sectarianism and reconciliation, but it will be hard put to hold its traditional 9-10 per cent share of the poll against inroads by the new Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, the Green Party, the Peace People based Democratic Partnership, and other smaller groupings.
Mr Robert McCartney's UK Unionist party is expected to do well. Although both governments are anxious that the fringe loyalist parties - the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) - should have delegates elected and be represented at the all party talks, their chances remain an open question. They may have to rely on their aggregate votes securing them a place in the top ten and thus gaining representation: through the regional list.
The cost of the election is estimated at over £1 million sterling and the Northern Ireland Office, has spent £100,000 on an advertising campaign to try to boost the turnout.
A campaigning group for disabled peopled, called Rights Now (NI), has complained that many disabled voters will be unable to gain access to the stations to register their votes. It says that there are over 200,000 such disabled voters, and intends to hold protests outside several polling centres.