BBC Profile:
The Reverend Robert Bradford held the seat, first for Vanguard, then as an Ulster Unionist, from February 1974 until his assassination by the IRA in November 1981. The Reverend Martin Smyth, a long-standing leader of the Orange Order, won the resulting by-election and held the seat for the Ulster Unionist Party until 2005. He had no competition from the Democratic Unionist Party after the 1983 general election and this continued in 2001 after he opposed the Belfast Agreement and his vote increased by nearly 9% between 1997 and 2001.

The rival unionist parties failed to agree an electoral pact after Smyth's retirement in 2005 and the subsequently split unionist vote allowed the Social Democratic and Labour Party's Alasdair McDonnell to become the seat's first nationalist representative at Westminster with a majority over the DUP of 1,235.

At the election, south Belfast gains four wards: Hillfoot and Wynchurch from East Belfast, and Carryduff East and Carryduff West from Strangford. To find out what might have happened had this boundary change been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result above.

Belfast South consists of the southern quarter of the Belfast City Council area and parts of Castlereagh. As well as being home to Queen's University and its large student population, this affluent constituency is also home to many of Belfast's most historic landmarks: City Hall, the Europa Hotel, the opera house and the famous Victo

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BBC Profile:
The Reverend Robert Bradford held the seat, first for Vanguard, then as an Ulster Unionist, from February 1974 until his assassination by the IRA in November 1981. The Reverend Martin Smyth, a long-standing leader of the Orange Order, won the resulting by-election and held the seat for the Ulster Unionist Party until 2005. He had no competition from the Democratic Unionist Party after the 1983 general election and this continued in 2001 after he opposed the Belfast Agreement and his vote increased by nearly 9% between 1997 and 2001.

The rival unionist parties failed to agree an electoral pact after Smyth's retirement in 2005 and the subsequently split unionist vote allowed the Social Democratic and Labour Party's Alasdair McDonnell to become the seat's first nationalist representative at Westminster with a majority over the DUP of 1,235.

At the election, south Belfast gains four wards: Hillfoot and Wynchurch from East Belfast, and Carryduff East and Carryduff West from Strangford. To find out what might have happened had this boundary change been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result above.

Belfast South consists of the southern quarter of the Belfast City Council area and parts of Castlereagh. As well as being home to Queen's University and its large student population, this affluent constituency is also home to many of Belfast's most historic landmarks: City Hall, the Europa Hotel, the opera house and the famous Victorian Crown Bar.

The biggest employers are Queen's University Belfast, the City Hospital and numerous call-centres. There is a very large student population centred on Queen's.

Tourism is a growing sector as visitor numbers rise following a decline in sectarian violence. The Botanic Gardens are the most visited site in Northern Ireland after the Giant's Causeway.

The constituency contains the integrated school Lagan College. It was the first such school in Northern Ireland when it was opened in 1981 and pioneered a growing movement to allow Catholic and Protestant children to be educated together.

Rallings & Thrasher Notional:
No Boundary Changes

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