East Antrim (UK Parliament constituency)

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For further details of the 1885-1922 UK Parliament constituency see Antrim East
East Antrim
County constituency
East Antrim shown within Northern Ireland
Created: 1885, 1983
MP: Sammy Wilson
Party: Democratic Unionist
Type: House of Commons
Districts: Larne, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey
EP constituency: Northern Ireland

East Antrim is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. It has voted for Unionist candidates since its re-creation in 1983.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries

Carrickfergus Castle
Enlarge
Carrickfergus Castle

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from parts of North Antrim and South Antrim. Since further revisions in 1995 (when it lost part of the district of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency) it now covers the entirety of the districts of Larne and Carrickfergus, as well as part of Newtownabbey.

[edit] Proposed Boundary changes

The Boundary Commission originally published provisional recommendations for modifying the boundaries of constituencies in Northern Ireland. Two significant changes were proposed for East Antrim. In the south of the constituency it was proposed to transfer a further part of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency whilst in the north the seat would have gained the Glens and Ballycastle in Moyle district from North Antrim. East Antrim would have been renamed Antrim Coast & Glens. However this latter part of the proposal raised many questions, with some already arguing that the Glens have no natural ties to Jordanstown (and in 1995 the previous Boundary Commission cited this very reason when rejecting such a proposal). Furthermore some commentators felt that such a long coastal seat was too sprawling and lacking in natural ties.

During the public enquiries the proposal to rename the seat was opposed and the Assistant Commissioner recommended no change to the name of the seat, which will gain 3 wards in the Glens area (but not Ballycastle) while losing Cloughfern ward to North Belfast. It is likely that these will be the final boundaries for 2009/10.

[edit] History

For the history of the equivalent constituencies prior to 1950 please see Antrim (constituency) and from 1950 until 1983, please see North Antrim (constituency) and South Antrim (constituency).

The constituency is overwhelmingly unionist, with the combined votes for nationalist parties rarely exceeding 10%. However there have been above average votes for parties outside the traditional unionist block, such as the Alliance and the Conservatives. In the local government elections for the equivalent area many votes often go to independent candidates or groups such as the Newtownabbey Ratepayers Association. While the SDLP sprung a surprise in 1998 by overtaking a DUP candidate to win the final seat due to Ulster Unionist transfers - the first time that any nationalist candidate has benefited in this way.

The main interest in Westminster Elections has been the contest between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. In 1983 the UUP were only 367 votes ahead of the DUP. As part of a pact to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement the DUP did not contest the seat until 1992 but they still failed to come close, though in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum they were only slightly behind the UUP. But in the 2001 general election they achieved an astonishing result when they came with 128 votes of winning the Westminster seat, despite not having targeted it. In the 2003 Assembly election they followed this up by gaining two additional MLAs and outpolling the UUP for the first time.

The DUP remained eager to take the Westminster seat and in the 2005 general election they did so.

[edit] Westminster elections

[edit] Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2005 general election is Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party. In that election he defeated Roy Beggs of the Ulster Unionist Party, who had sat for the seat since it was created at the 1983 general election

[edit] Election results

General Election 2005: East Antrim
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Unionist Sammy Wilson 15,766 49.6 +13.6
Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs 8,462 26.6 -9.8
Alliance (NI) Séan Neeson 4,869 15.3 +2.8
Social Democratic & Labour Danny O'Connor 1,695 5.3 -2.0
Sinn Féin James McKeown 828 2.6 +0.1
Rainbow Dream Ticket David Kerr 147 0.5 +0.5
Majority 7,304 23.0
Turnout 31,767 54.5
Democratic Unionist gain from Ulster Unionist Swing 11.7%
General Election 2001: East Antrim
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs 13,101 36.4 -2.4
Democratic Unionist Sammy Wilson 12,973 36.0 +16.6
Alliance (NI) John Mathews 4,483 12.5 -7.7
Social Democratic & Labour Danny O’Connor 2,641 7.3 +2.7
Independent (politician) Robert Mason 1,092 3.0 -0.3
Sinn Féin Janette Graffan 903 2.5 +0.9
Conservative Alan Greer 807 2.2 -4.6
Majority 128 0.4
Turnout 36,000 59.1 +0.9
Ulster Unionist hold Swing

[edit] Assembly and Forum elections

The six MLAs for the constituency elected in the 2003 election are:

In the 1998 election the six MLAs elected were:

Changes 1998-2003

In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from East Antrim. They were as follows:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

    This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
    Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since October 2006.
    Constituencies in Northern Ireland
    DUP

    Belfast East | Belfast North | East Antrim | East Londonderry | Lagan Valley | North Antrim | South Antrim | Strangford | Upper Bann
    Sinn Féin

    Belfast West | Fermanagh and South Tyrone | Mid Ulster | Newry and Armagh | West Tyrone
    SDLP

    Belfast South | Foyle | South Down
    UUP

    North Down
    Northern Ireland European constituency: DUP (1) | Sinn Féin (1) | UUP (1)
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