As Northern Ireland faces the “highly likely” prospect of returning to the polls for a snap Assembly election as a result of deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’ decision to resign in protest against the handling of the flawed Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, MLAs are facing up to the fact that the 18 constituencies will each lose one seat.

In Fermanagh South Tyrone that means six seats will be reduced to five.

Read: Recap of 2016 election - 8 months ago

One man who will be “fighting tooth and nail” to retain his seat is SDLP MLA Richie McPhillips, who seemed to be first out of the traps and onto the election trail when he posted a photo on social media as he knocked on doors in Rosslea at the weekend.

However, Mr. McPhillips admitted that he made the decision to visit homes in the constituency on January 7, the first Saturday of 2017, because he had done the same on the first Saturday of 2016, not because he expected another election.

Political parties “are always on an election footing,” Mr. McPhillips said, adding: “Saturday was planned because we needed to get Garbhan (Mr. McPhillips’ son who was co-opted into his Fermanagh and Omagh District Council seat) out and about.”

When Mr. McGuinness’ resignation collapsed the Executive on Monday and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire said another election was “highly likely”, the need for door stepping became more real.

“You can bet your life I’m going to fight tooth and nail to retain my seat. We fought hard to win the seat last year,” said Mr. McPhillips, who regained the seat that the SDLP lost to Sinn Féin in 2011. 

Read: SDLP win back seat in Fermanagh South Tyrone

In the May 2016 Assembly election, Mr. McPhillips pipped Sinn Féin’s John Feely to the post when the redistribution of UUP MLA Rosemary Barton’s votes saw him finish with 6,107.23 votes – Mr. McPhilip’s success was attributed to UUP voters who gave the SDLP man their third preference vote.

Read: Sinn Fein sources have voiced concern that some UUP voters have given McPhillips their third preference

He recognises the challenge ahead, saying: “I am going to have to get every man, woman and young person who has any history of voting for the SDLP to vote again.”

After May’s election, the SDLP  went into opposition with the UUP at Stormont, an arrangement that Mr. McPhillips says received positive feedback on the doorsteps of Fermanagh.

“The arrangement is still in its infancy and is going to filter down to local Councils as well. It’s not the sole reason that we’ve reached this impasse, but the opposition has certainly focused on ‘the big two, more than ever before,” he said.

Northern Ireland is in “a toxic situation” as a result of the handling of the RHI scandal, which could cost the tax payer up to 490 million over 20 years, Mr. McPhillips believes.

He said: “The general message from constituents is that people are fed up to the back teeth the carry on over the last couple of years. It seems that there’s a complete lack of trust and a lack of accountability.”