Northern Ireland overview: Most parties are concentrating on local issues rather than Europe, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Seven contenders have been nominated for this European Parliament election amid growing voter disengagement with electoral politics. Suspension of Stormont, election fatigue and the ongoing political impasse have led many to fear another drop in turnout. Turnout last November was some 122,000 down on the previous election. Most, but not all the local parties are making a priority of local political issues over European concerns.
The SDLP and Ulster Unionists are particularly desperate to compensate for reverses suffered at last November's Assembly elections, while Sinn Féin and the DUP want to secure their positions as leaders of their respective communities.
The DUP, anxious to maintain its record of topping the poll in each of the five European elections since 1979, is stressing the importance for unionism of heading the field.
With the Rev Ian Paisley retiring from Strasbourg, Mr Jim Allister has made a strident appeal for the unionist vote and desperately wants the significant personal vote secured by his party leader.
Sinn Féin's Ms Bairbre de Brúsees a realistic chance of taking the seat held by the former SDLP leader Mr John Hume for the past 25 years.
But her party has pitched its campaign for wide nationalist support on a claim that a growing Sinn Féin vote will pressure the British government into acting to implement the Belfast Agreement.
The SDLP meanwhile, has stressed its pro-Europeanism, is trumpeting the record of Mr John Hume and is branding the others as anti-European.
With Belfast Lord Mayor, Mr Martin Morgan, nominated as candidate, the party is making much of its membership of the Party of European Socialists and claiming credit for the doubling of structural funds to £2.3 billion.
The Ulster Unionists look to the June 11th election as an opportunity to put its divisions, and defections behind it.
The campaign by Mr Jim Nicholson, the only sitting MEP seeking re-election, is seeking to prove that the party has turned a corner and is now more united behind both leader and policy, despite taunts from the DUP which claims the reverse is true.
Another poor showing could signpost a difficult Westminster election expected next year.
The four large parties are joined by Eamonn McCann, the journalist and trade unionist, who is seeking to build on his notable performance in his native Derry under the banner of the Socialist Environmental Alliance at the Assembly election.
He has opted for a wide political agenda and is focusing on globalisation and environmental concerns.
Also contesting the election is Mr John Gilliland, the president of the Ulster Farmers' Union until last month, who is standing on a unity platform and gaining the support of the Alliance Party and the Workers' Party.
Mr Gilliland is also supported by members of the Women's Coalition, although the party has not formally endorsed his campaign which promises "no politics, just action".
Mr Gilliland, who turned 39 on Sunday, is casting himself in a non-party political role, although he makes no secret of his endorsement of both the EU and the Belfast Agreement.
The Green Party is putting forward Ms Lindsay Whitcroft, a former Alliance Party election candidate. She was named shortly before Friday's nomination deadline following the withdrawal of the party's first choice candidate. She believes her profile as a relative unknown will be bolstered by the significance of the Green agenda which she says is prominent throughout Ireland and the wider EU.
The parties privately concede that low voter turnout could be a problem with apathy proving a significant factor last November and polling totals in decline in many western democracies.
The Electoral Commission, an independent body which advises the British government on democratic trends, reported last month that the previous high voter turnout totals in the North can no longer be relied upon. The commission warned that a dislocation between young voters in particular with representative politics has to be countered.
In common with elections going back to 1982, the DUP is warning the wider unionist electorate of the dangers of Sinn Féin topping the poll, a tactic it hopes will solidify unionists behind its stridently Eurosceptic candidate. The DUP fervently believes such an approach will help turn the screw on the rival Ulster Unionists, which it continues to portray as weak, vacillating and still divided under Mr David Trimble, whom it vilifies at every opportunity.
Mr Jim Nicholson has campaigned on a message which broadly supports Northern Ireland membership of the EU, admits the region has benefited from EU investment, but decries the treatment of farmers and fishermen by Brussels.
Sinn Féin, like the DUP, senses it can build on its advantage over the SDLP which it won last November. Ms de Brútook her campaign with party president Mr Gerry Adams to SDLP territory in South Down last night. She will also work to counter some hostility in west Tyrone where she is blamed for the plan to close Omagh's hospital while health minister.