Northern Ireland General Election Attitudes Survey, 2010

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The 2010 General Election represented the first opportunity for Northern Ireland's (NI) voters to express their political preferences in a non-European election since the formation of a power-sharing devolved government in 2007, headed by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. The Northern Ireland General Election Attitudes Survey, 2010 examines the NI electorate's views of the 2010 election and explores different possible scenarios, such as:thawing of the sectarian divide between Protestant-British Unionists and Catholic-Irish nationalistsmovement away from the main ethnic blocs by voters who may support cross-community parties such as Alliance or the Greensthe utility of the joint 'Ulster Unionist-Conservative Party' label of Unionism's second largest partythe impact of Sinn Fein's new political approach, with the party supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland since 2007The survey provides vital evidence on the demographics of party support, the perceptions of parties and the views of the performance of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. The survey also tests the electorate’s perception of the threat posed by 'dissident' republicans.Further information can be found on the 2010 Northern Ireland General Election ESRC award web page. Users are advised that the UK Data Archive holds the British Election Study series (available under GN 33066) which explores electoral behaviour in Great Britain.Main Topics: The main areas of study are: level of interest in the General Electionperceived key issue on which they votedparties perceived as best able to address these issuesNI party perceived as closest to respondents views on this issuevoting patterns and reasons for choice of party/candidate in this election and in previous electionsreasons for not votingattitudes to parties and leadersattitudes to the economy and the parties best able to address economic issuesattitudes to Europeattitudes to the status of NIimportance of selected issues to the NI electoratesatisfaction with the performance of the Governmentlevel of contact with parties prior to the election