NI election 2022: Newly-eligible young voters have their say

Polling stations open at 07:00 BST on 5 May for the Northern Ireland Assembly election

More than 30,000 people who were too young to vote in the last election in Northern Ireland have registered for next week's assembly election.

The total electorate is just over 1.3 million, which is almost 120,000 more than at the 2019 Westminster election.

Polling stations open at 07:00 BST on Thursday 5 May to elect a new assembly at Stormont.

BBC News NI sampled opinion about the election among young people who have just turned 18 and entitled to vote.

Within a group of 12 students at St Ronan's College in Lurgan, eight said they would be voting, three were undecided and one said he would be not be voting.

"I have other things to worry about at the moment, my A-levels and stuff, so I don't feel like it's my place to vote,"said James.

Among the undecided contingent, Emma said: "I don't really know enough about it to make a wise decision on who I should vote for."

Eight out of 12 students at St Ronan's College said they would be voting next week

But others were adamant they would be having their say on polling day.

"We live in a democracy and I think it's very important to vote," said Molly. "My granny has never missed a vote and she's 89."

As for the issues they believe are important in the election - the need to improve the health service, tackle climate change and improve education opportunities were high on their agenda.

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Better promotion and protection of Irish language was highlighted as a key issue by a number of students.

The school's head boy, who is also called James, said: "A big thing for me is an Irish Language Act.

"People that don't speak Irish will not be discriminated against but it will lead to people who do speak Irish to be more accepted."

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Turn-out at the last Assembly election in 2017 was 65%.

At Magherafelt High School in County Londonderry, four of five students aged 18 said they intended to vote.

"There is nothing really to interest me to want to vote," said Robert.

But Abbie said she thought voting was important: "If we all sit back, it won't change anything."

In terms of issues, health and education were identified as key factors, and some students raised difficulties posed by post-Brexit trading arrangements involving the Northern Ireland Protocol.

"Working part-time in the food industry you notice a lot of food being extremely hard to bring in," said Nicole.

"That's all down to the Northern Ireland Protocol."

Robert said he had no interest in voting, while Abbie said she thought it was important

Overall, she said she was excited to be involved in next week's election.

"It's something new. It's another milestone to hit, being able to vote," she said.

On election day, there will be 606 polling stations in Northern Ireland, with a total of 1,345 ballot boxes.

Votes will not be counted overnight.

The first results are expected in the afternoon the day after the election.

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