It's mid-afternoon on Wednesday, so that means we're just hours away from the polls opening for the local council election in the three most recent episodes of red lines.

We discussed the challenges for unionism, for nationalism and for the unaligned parties in tomorrow's poll.

And today we're going to examine one big issue, all the parties and all 807 candidates face when the polling stations finally throw open their doors.

And that's apathy.

So why is it a problem?

How widespread is it?

And what impact might it have on the political landscape on the other side of this week's vote?

John, in terms of how voters normally engage with election campaigns, does this one

look any different to you? This election might have appeared flat, but it's actually, you know,

if you look at turnouts in Northern Ireland, they're very healthy. There's a great sense of

civic duty. It's a politically charged society. You look at average local election turnout in

Northern Ireland this century. It's

56%. That's only 7% shy of average general election turnout. That's a differential that is very,

very small compared to, for example, England, where only 35% of people turn out on average at a local election compared to 65% at a Westminster contest.

So Northern Ireland can be proud of its voting record.

You get the majority of people turning out whatever the contest, whether it be a local election,

whether it be an assembly election, whether it be a Westminster election.

I mean, I vividly remember the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election, people were be a Westminster election. I mean, I vividly remember the, I think the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election,

people were, 62% of people turned out on a dark November day to vote for an assembly

that they knew wasn't coming back for several years.

It didn't come back for the best part of three and a half years after that election.

And yet still, the bulk of people came out and voted. So yes, it's been in many ways of dull and a half years after that election, and yet still the bulk of people came out and

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