Ulster Strangford - How much damage was caused to the DUP support by the Iris Robinson affair?
In the sprawling constituency of Strangford, tales of expenses and affairs have livened up what would otherwise have been a traditionally predictable contest.
MP Iris Robinson resigned in January due to mental health problems and after admitting a brief affair with a much younger man.
It also emerged that Mrs Robinson had borrowed £50,000 from two property developers to help the man, 19-year-old Kirk McCambley, establish a cafe business near Belfast.
The matter may have damaged some of her party's , the DUP, support in the area, despite her strong track record on issues like healthcare.
Earlier revelations pointed to significant food bills on Westminster expenses shared with her husband, First Minister Peter Robinson. She also tried to claim £300 for a Mont Blanc fountain pen.
Vying to be her replacement are popular local DUP Assemblyman, Jim Shannon and Mike Nesbitt, a former TV presenter who is standing for the Tory/Ulster Unionist alliance, the 'Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force' party.
At the last Westminster elections in 2005 the DUP polled 57% of the vote to the UUP's 21%. Mrs Robinson had a 13,000 majority.
Unusually, every one of the candidates for 2010 is standing for the first time.
Henry Patterson, professor of politics at the University of Ulster, said the real unknown factor was the degree to which the DUP has been hurt by the Iris Robinson affair, expenses and family land deals.
'The DUP will be pressing the fact that Shannon is a good constituency MLA, he has got a good record on potholes,' he said.
'What Shannon has going for him is the fact that he has inherited a large majority, he is an established name in the constituency and he is not tainted by the expenses, he is hoping that the local will triumph.'
Mr Nesbitt will be hoping to capitalise from what he says is disillusion with politics that may leave some DUP voters staying at home. 
Mr Nesbitt, an unknown in politics until a few months ago, is keen to emphasise his detachment from old Orange and Green politics and said Parliament needed an advocate at the national level rather than another representative concentrated on sorting out potholes.
He said his party would restore the link with earnings for pensions.
Newtownards is the largest town in the constituency. Dundonald and Carryduff are part of Belfast's suburbs, while towns like Comber and Killyleagh are a combination of country market towns and Belfast dormitories.
This is a largely comfortable, suburban area and most local farmers have traditionally been prosperous. It is one of the most solidly Protestant constituencies (80% Protestant, 15% Catholic), which is reflected in the overwhelming unionist majority at the polls.
Pauline Rea, Deputy Editor of the Newtownards Chronicle, is unequivocal in her assessment, saying Jim Shannon will have a 'clean run'.
'It will be won on personality not on politics. There's a lot of public admiration for Jim, I don't think there will be any taint (from the Robinson affair)'.
From the distribution of local council seats the DUP's advantage looks pronounced, with the DUP holding 11 to the Ulster Unionists' six.
Five of those DUP seats are held by defectors from the UUP, former anti-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionists.
Yet the DUP has also suffered its own setbacks, with former party member Terry Williams standing for the anti-Stormont power-sharing Traditional Unionist Voice movement and he may attract some of the DUP's hardline support.
Mr Williams joined the DUP in 2001 and claims he is the only one to stay true to his principles after he left the party in 2007 following their decision to enter government with Sinn Féin.
In Ballygowan, the Alliance candidate Deborah Girvan, formerly a PE teacher and advocate of integrated education, was canvassing accompanied by John Andrews.
Mr Andrews is a descendant of the Ulster Unionist Andrews dynasty, which provided one wartime prime minister as well as the designer of the ill-fated Titanic.
Lack of work is an issue which unites most constituencies across the UK and Northern Ireland.
In an area which has also been touched by the recession, job insecurity and local issues are on the voters' minds.
PA
