Election 2017: Sinn Fein candidate aims to restore '˜integrity' to democratic insitutions

Mr Doran is a life-long environmentalist and campaigner and currently lectures on environmental justice at the School of Law at Queens University Belfast.

He used to be a member of the Green Party before making the switch to Sinn Fein a few years ago.

He said: “Brexit has dramatised the democratic deficit in the North, indeed the North is a state of powerlessness, compounded by the DUP’s consistent record of siding with an English Tory party in opposition to the greater good.

“Sinn Féin is leading the call for ‘special status’ as part of forthcoming Brexit negotiations. We are also determined to restore the integrity and functioning of all the democratic institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement.”

Anyone wanting to check that they are on the electoral register should contact the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland on 0800 4320 712.

The deadline for registering to vote is February 14. With the number of MLAs being reduced across Northern Ireland from 108 to 90, a total of 13 candidates are battling it out in Lagan Valley for just five seats at Stormont.

They are: Dan Barrios-O’Neill (Green NI), Robbie Butler (UUP), Pat Catney (SDLP), Peter Doran (Sinn Fein), Paul Givan (DUP), Keith Gray (Independent), Brenda Hale (DUP), Trevor Lunn (Alliance), Samuel Morrison (TUV), Jonny Orr (Independent), Jennifer Palmer (UUP), Edwin Poots (DUP), Matthew Robinson (NI Conservatives).