ALLIANCE IS hopeful it can raise its Assembly representation by three or four seats at the May election, the party leader has said.
David Ford said only his party could provide the political change people genuinely wanted. The other parties were guilty of “propping up” the old system and the old ways, he alleged.
Alliance is running 22 candidates across all 18 constituencies and has nominated two candidates in four key constituencies in the hope it can build on its current Stormont total of seven seats.
“I cannot predict the ceiling of our ambition,” Mr Ford told a press conference in Belfast yesterday to launch the party’s Assembly and local government campaigns.
“We will set out our vision of a society where everyone can live, work and socialise together in safety; a better place to live – better meaning more peaceful, prosperous, open, welcoming and vibrant . . . a society where separations and divisions will start to be dismantled and with them the heavy cost burden we currently carry to pay for our divisions.”
Citing Naomi Long’s victory in East Belfast over DUP leader Peter Robinson in last year’s Westminster election, Mr Ford said “the biggest swing in the UK” had not dissipated and he was confident of two Alliance representatives in the six-seat constituency after May 5th.
The Alliance leader said the party was running more candidates for both the Assembly and councils in more areas, “representing a greater diversity of background than ever before”.