increasing his profile and building up their local organisation in preparation for a shot at the next election. The battle between McClelland and Meehan attracted much attention as it would indicate the movement of votes within the nationalist community between the two parties, though most agreed that it was always likely for the SDLP to come out on top in the highly middle-class constituency. In addition the Natural Law Party selected David Collins. This was to be one of the last occasions that the party would fight an election in Northern Ireland. Campaign With delays over the selection and the summer holiday intervening, polling day in the by-election was held off until 21 September, allowing extensive campaigning. The constituency is strongly Protestant and it was always clear that the real contest was between the two Unionist parties. Away from these two, interest was piqued by the advance of Sinn Féin, overtaking the Alliance in the number of votes won. Many believed that this heralded the former party subsequently taking the latter's Assembly seat in the next assembly election, but in the event Ford narrowly held on. Results General Election result, 1997 See also List of United Kingdom by-elections References External links British Parliamentary By Elections: Campaign literature from the by-election A Vision Of Britain Through Time (Constituency elector numbers) By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Antrim constituencies 2000 elections in the United Kingdom 2000 elections in Northern Ireland 20th century in County Antrim September 2000 events in the United Kingdom